Back to Reality
by Earthcat123
Summary: This carries on from my other story, uses the same characters and everything but jumps ahead a year to directly after the end of Series 3. I wrote it during the huge gap between 3 and 4 so please remember that it's completley different from series 4. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1~Unfinished Business **

Danny Quinn sat against the slope of the mountain, considering his options. The anomaly had closed, it was getting dark, and he had no way of getting home. He needed to find somewhere out of the way to sleep for the night, then, in the morning, find something to eat without getting eaten, and then... He didn't know what to do then. He took a deep breath of the clean air and stood up, searching. He needed to find a tall tree or a ledge in the rock that he could sleep in without fear of becoming something's breakfast. Another thing he needed to do in the morning was sort out Helen's body. He doubted anyone would be able to explain why a modern human and a Raptor had died at the time of the first humans. But that was for tomorrow. He caught sight of a... He had no idea what kind of tree it was, everything was different here. But it looked easy enough to climb, and had some sturdy-looking branches at the top, so Danny made for it. It was fully dark by the time he had managed to climb all the way up to the top, disturbing a few small, un-nameable critters on his way up, and settle down. Eventually, he drifted off into a jumpy and fitful sleep.

A few thousand years and about twelve hours later, in the Cretaceous Era, Connor was jolted awake. Abby was crouching over him, both backpacks over her shoulders.

"Come on, we need to get moving," she slid out of Connor's field of vision, onto a lower branch of the tree. Connor heaved himself up, stiff back complaining, and winced at his sprained ankle. He followed Abby down the tree. At the bottom, he tested his ankle. It hurt, but not as much as yesterday, and he could put his weight on it, at least.

"So what now?" he asked Abby.

"We need to find Danny," she said.

"How are we gonna do that?"

"We find where we left him and follow his footprints. Where they end is where he and Helen went through the anomaly,"

"Then what? We can't open a new one; the thingamajig ran out of power,"

"I'm still working on that," Abby started east, and they soon found the place they'd left Danny the day before. Thankfully, the Raptors were nowhere to be seen. Abby scoured the ground, looking for footprints in the leaves.

"There!" she pointed at a trail of dark patches on the ground and started to follow them, Connor limping along behind.

Becker led the seven, heavily armed men through the labyrinth of destruction that was the future of the human race, looking for any sign of Quinn. The Infer-Red goggles made everything a bright green, with the occasional red blip when Predators moved out from behind their hiding places. The team of Snipers on the nearby roof usually shot them before he knew they were even there. They had come from Johnson's HQ, looking for any trace of where Danny, Connor and Abby had gone. He hadn't expected to find one.

"Sir!" a whispered shout from somewhere to his left. Becker turned and followed the beckoning man into a doorway. The man pointed at the door. The ARC's symbol was painted onto it, with 'Cutter Building' printed beneath. The rusted box next to the door resembled a card-swipe system that had stopped working a long time ago, and now the door freely opened. Becker readied his pistol and cautiously pushed the door open, stepping inside. The dust on the floor of the barren room showed signs of recent activity. Becker made his way into the room, his men close behind. Someone had recently been here, recently enough that the dust hadn't had time to re-settle on the surface of a stone, glass-topped table in the centre of the room. No, it wasn't a table; there was a mess of power cables leading out of it, connected to a small clump of... Batteries? This far into the future and they were relying on batteries to power whatever this thing was? No, Quinn had been here. Becker was sure of it. He nodded to his men, who began to set up a defensive perimeter inside the room. Becker slipped out and made his way back to the anomaly to make his report.

James Lester paced slowly through the corridors of the ARC, trying very hard to look impassive and un-emotional. He thought he was doing a pretty good job. His mind, however, was overflowing with thoughts. Where were Danny, Abby and Connor? Had Becker managed to find them? What had happened to Helen? What had she been planning when she left in such a hurry? He pushed all these to the back of his mind and focused on his most immediate matter. Two of his medical staff had retired, and finding decent replacements wasn't as simple as he had thought it would be. Most of the doctors he had interviewed so far had simply no idea of the things they would be dealing with. Lester glanced at his watch and made his way, in his slow and commanding manner, back to his office to greet the next candidates.

The candidates in question were early. Two of them, a young, well built man and a woman looking to be in her late twenties. They were lounging against the wall of Lester's office when he approached, giving the impression that they owned the place. He saw Lester first, and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and smiled, extending her hand out to Lester. He shook it, noticing that the smile didn't quite reach her cold, green eyes.

"James Lester, Home Office," Lester introduced himself. He didn't give them time to reply, he knew their names already, "I don't suppose you have any idea what you're trying to get yourselves into?"

"Nope," the woman said, matching his tone. "Are you going to tell us, or is that one of those things that we're not allowed to know until you give us the job?"

"Let's just say you have undoubtedly never seen injuries like the ones you'll be dealing with," The woman met his stare and held it with a similar one of her own, her friendly smile lifting higher at one corner, giving her a sly look a fox would have trouble besting.

"Try me," she said.

Connor limped straight into Abby when she stopped suddenly, frowning at the ground. They were in the middle of a nearly perfect circle made by fallen trees.

"The footprints, they've run out," she crouched down and studied the earth, but could see no trace in any direction of more prints. The anomaly must've been here, she decided. She sat down on a tree that had fallen nearby and tried to think what to do next. Connor wasn't helping.

"What are we gonna do now?"

"I don't know,"

"Well, you'd better think of something..."

"SHH!"

"Sorry," Connor looked wounded. "I'm just saying..."

"Connor!" Abby held her hand up for silence. "Can you hear that?"

"...No..." Connor was about to say something about Abby being paranoid, when he heard it too, a near-silent beeping. Abby stood up and walked around, trying to pinpoint the source. Connor did the same, and they bumped into each other at the base of the largest of the tree trunks.

"Connor you're standing on it," Abby pulled a dirty, square object out from under Connor's boot and cleaned it off. It was another Anomaly-Opening Device! Helen must have dropped it before she went through the day before. Connor was halfway through a celebratory jump in the air, when a roar behind him made him loose his balance on his good foot and fall over completely. Abbey whirled around, and saw a very big, very angry Raptor running at full speed down the hillside towards them. She threw the Device at Connor and grabbed a branch.

"Quick! Open Helen's second anomaly!" She took up a ready stance and prepared to swing the branch in a perfect baseball fashion at the oncoming Raptor. Connor fumbled with the Device and made several panicking noises before a mess of silver shards flew out from his hands. The anomaly hovered right in the centre of the circle, directly in front of the last footprint. Abby walloped the Raptor in the side of the head, hauled Connor off the floor and sprinted towards the Anomaly.

Sunlight streamed between a break in the leaves of Danny's tree, straight onto his face. He blinked at the rude awakening and rolled slightly to his left. The next thing he knew was a heart wrenching moment of panic when he lost his balance on the branch. It woke him up very nicely. Crouching, he checked to make sure he hadn't been snacked on in the night before painstakingly making his way down the tree. He had to find some breakfast, and seeing as he'd left the rucksacks with Abby and Connor, he would have to go and get it himself. Fantastic. He looked at the sun; it was late in the morning. He'd overslept.

He got three steps up the hill when a mighty roar and a very human-sounding scream echoed behind him. He whirled round, ready to fight with his bare hands if necessary. What he saw instead, however, made him laugh with relief as much as amusement. Connor appeared over the top of the hill, running as fast as his ankle would allow, followed by Abby, still carrying her branch. Behind her, one of the Early Humans Helen had been trying to kill. It stopped just beyond the rise of the hill and seemed to shake its fist at them like a grouchy old man before turning around and climbing back the way it had come. Danny wiped the tears of laughter off his face and stood up. Connor and Abby slid to a stop in front of him and bent over panting for a few moments, Danny still grinning broadly.

"That...wasn't...funny!" Connor managed to say between pants. Danny shrugged and Abby threw her arms around him in a squashing hug.

"Well, that was easier than expected," she announced, much to Connor's disapproval.

"Easy? We've just been chased by that thing for ten minutes straight!"

"Would you rather be wandering around aimlessly in the desert right now?"

"Not really, no, but..." Connor let the sentence hang as he tried again to catch his breath.

"I'm guessing, then, that you guys managed to get that thing fixed," Danny butted in. Abby explained about finding Helen's Anomaly Opener.

"Where is Helen?" Connor wondered.

"She was pushed off a cliff and then landed on by a Raptor,"

"Sorry I asked,"

"Can we go home now?"

"Yes, actually," Connor led the way back to where the anomaly opened, being very careful to avoid the Early Human's territory.

Becker was bored. As much as he refused to admit it, he was very, VERY bored, and needed something to do. He had been waiting in the room they'd found for a good three hours now, and in that three hours, absolutely nothing had happened. Half of his men had made themselves comfortable on the floor, and he didn't have the heart to get them to stand up again. He himself had taken up position slouched against the Battery-Powered Table, listening to the occasional shot from the snipers outside. At least they're doing something, he thought darkly.

He managed to daydream for a few minutes, and only realised when he brought himself back to the present that the Snipers had stopped. There was an almighty crash, and then everything happened at once. Suddenly, all his men were on their feet firing at the ceiling, and Predators were crawling in by the dozen. For the next ten minutes, although it felt like a lot longer, shots rang through the room, Predators sprang, and Becker was forced against the far wall. He'd managed to drop his gun. Just as he was about to do something stupidly suicidal, a blinding light filled the room and everything stopped. The Predators jumped out of the room as quickly as they'd come in, and an anomaly stood right in front of Becker.

Danny stepped through the anomaly into the future and knew that something was wrong. Abby appeared next to him, followed by Connor who closed it behind him. Danny scanned the room, and came face to face with a very angry-looking Predator. On the other hand, the Predators never really looked anything other than angry. Danny froze, and felt Connor and Abby do the same. Not fair, Danny thought to himself, to come this far, and get eaten right on the doorstep. The Predator raised its clawed hand and was about to bring it down on Danny's face, when there was a pair of loud bangs and the Predator fell in a heap of flailing limbs at Danny's feet. He looked up to see Becker with one eyebrow raised, re-loading his pistol.

"Please don't tell me you're going to stand there all day," he really could be quite funny at times, Becker.

"Glad to see you, too," Danny said, somewhat sarcastically. The three of them followed him out, and didn't like what they saw. The bodies of fifteen men were slowly being snacked on by Predators on three nearby roofs. Danny saw Becker's shoulders drop a fraction of an inch.

They crept slowly forwards, hoping the Predators were too preoccupied with their lunch to notice them. They inched towards the end of the path, hardly daring to breathe. Connor could see the racetrack anomaly now, it was locked. Becker stopped, checked his watch, and frowned, motioning to stay where they were and keep quiet. They stood against the wall, watching the Predators, praying that whatever Gods existed were going to be nice enough to let them go by unnoticed.

Not a chance.

One Predator looked up from its meal, straight at the group. It growled to its friends, and the lot of them, there must have been twenty, began advancing over the rooftop. Becker raised his pistol and shot the front most one between the eyes, and immediately wished he hadn't. As soon as the Predator hit the ground, the rest of them gave a unanimous growl that sounded like thunder and charged. Danny, Abby and Connor sprinted for the Anomaly, Becker bringing up the rear, brandishing his pistol. He managed to shoot another four before he ran out of bullets and there was nowhere left to run.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2~Reunited**

It was at that point when, along with a few dozen swear words; a very important and long-ignored thought went through Becker's mind. He didn't quite know what it was at the time, and was quickly followed by the realisation that he could always figure it out in whatever afterlife there may be. It had something to do with a particular woman he once knew, with fire-red hair and green eyes that seemed to be able to look straight into your brain like some highly sensitive x-ray. It also had something to do with the fact that she was dead. Or, at least, he had been told she was. Not directly, of course, but the phrase "There were no survivors" was a bit of a giveaway. He didn't think it was true, but he had never been able to contact her, and everyone he spoke to confirmed what he had been told.

All this managed to fly through his head in about two milliseconds, and was followed by about a dozen more swear words, half of which he said out loud. Readying yourself for death, he decided, was not particularly easy when the death in question was being delivered at the claws of about sixteen angry, nameless creatures from the future. 'What on earth will Lester tell my mother?' Was what he thought would be his final living thought on Earth.

It wasn't.

All of a sudden, someone threw him a pistol and about seven gunshots rang out at once, three of them his own. Danny, Abby and Connor were nowhere to be seen, replaced instead by an open anomaly and three men with heavy-looking guns. A pair of hands grabbed him from behind and he fell onto his back in the 21st Century, very much alive. He lay on the cold floor for a moment while the biggest sense of Deja Vu he had ever experienced shot into his mind, only this time he didn't have a dislocated shoulder. A hand entered his field of vision and he allowed whoever owned it to pull him to his feet, not clocking who it was and realising for probably the first time that he was in fact alive. The glory of that knowledge would, unfortunately, have to wait for later, because his staff was, to be blunt, hopeless. Organising ten complete morons into loading up a car was the last thing he wanted to be doing after his narrow escape from death, but he did it anyway, promising himself a long, hot shower the minute he got home.

Maria Holland was hit by a familiar sense of despair as the security guard told her what was going on. It was a sense that hadn't surfaced in a while, but was still annoying. One glance at Lou Walker told her that he was feeling pretty much the same thing, and a loose and basic plan began forming in her mind. Loose and basic was about as good as a plan ever got for Maria, but always seemed to work. She nodded at the security guard when he'd finished his explanation, and began rummaging around in the ARC's car for the box of bandages and plasters of just about every shape and size she had put in it that morning. Lou finished grilling answers from the now quite pale security guard, and came striding over to her.

"Four of them, stuck on the other side, they can't open it yet just in case predators come through before they do..."

"Yes, thank you Lou, I was listening," Maria cut in. She had become slightly more hostile towards him over the year they had spent out of the military, as if he was an unwelcome reminder of something she wanted to forget. He knew she wasn't doing it deliberately, but also knew he was the only one of the pair of them that regularly thought about that couple of months. They entered the small garage and faced the anomaly. Even locked as it was, it was still spectacular, supernatural. Only the security guard concentrating furiously on his watch ruined the picture. Maria almost wanted to laugh at the look on his face but didn't. She hadn't laughed properly for nearly year.

The sudden arrival of seven more security guards from seemingly nowhere startled the pair, and the Watch-Watcher began counting down from ten, before hitting a big red button on a machine next to him. As he did so, there was a rushing sound and the anomaly sprang open. Maria and Lou stood transfixed for a second, before a thunder-like roar came through the anomaly and three of the security guards behind them ran through, carrying the type of weaponry that shouldn't be allowed anywhere outside a tank battle. Seconds later, three people, two men and a woman fell backwards out of the anomaly and were dragged out of the way by more soldiers. Maria and Lou busied themselves with check-ups and brief introductions, missing the fourth person to end up on the floor of the garage.

A surprisingly short five minutes later, Connor, Abby and Danny had been anti-septiced until they were numb and were sitting in the car, waiting for Becker's men to finish re-loading it up with the various bits and pieces they had taken out of it and probably not actually used. They figured they were going to be there a while, and made idle conversation with Lou Walker in the spare moments, telling him more about the ARC operations and things that had happened recently.

Maria leaned in the doorway, watching Captain Becker attempt to organise his men without actually shouting. He was doing a pretty good job, considering how difficult it actually was. It took her five minutes to figure out who she was looking at, and another seven for her to process it. By the time the soldiers had finished faffing and had packed the car, she was certain. She didn't believe in fate and destiny; she didn't like the idea that something else was controlling her life, and had given up on the God thing years ago, but still...

Ryan Anthony Becker was different, certainly, but it was him. He was more muscular, his hair was longer and his magical brown eyes had a distance in them that hadn't been there before, but then again, the same thing was in hers too. He was also covered in dirt, but that was understandable based on what Lester had told her about the ARC. He ran a hand through his hair in the same exasperated way he had used when confronting Colonel Richards and Maria grinned to herself. a car engine started somewhere behind her, and Becker sat heavily on one of the storage crates, keeping his stupidly made promise that he would supervise the mechanism until someone else turned up. Knowing the ARC, he would be there for a good few hours. Maria watched him lean back against the wall, close his eyes and seem to fall asleep. She knew he wasn't though, she knew him too well to miss the tiny flickers of his eyelashes showing he was blinking every few seconds. The pair of them stood and sat, motionless, for fifteen minutes, before the overwhelming feeling of being watched forced Becker to open one eye. He closed it again without taking a proper look, already deciding that he was being paranoid, before snapping them both open three seconds later.

Maria fought to control the grin threatening to emerge at the bemused expression spreading across Becker's face, and then gave up. She crossed the garage to where he was sitting, still completely speechless, grin widening with every step, and leaned back against the wall.

"Hi," she said, as if they'd only seen each other yesterday. Becker stood up slowly; his eyes still twice their normal size.

"I...You...They..." Becker stammered, still unable to say anything. His mind, however, was racing. Maria Holland was dead; He'd spoken to everyone who'd been there at the time of the bombing, and they'd all said the same. He'd even managed to get through to Colonel Richards' secretary, who'd told him rather icily that no one had survived the attack. That had left him confused, but he had no way to find out for sure. Maria had told him once that her brother never put his numbers in directories, but he'd searched for hours anyway. Finally, about nine months ago, he had stopped searching, finally accepting the fact that he wouldn't find anything. But now, here she was, standing in front of him, that beautiful smile on her face. His first assumption was that he was dreaming, but he had far too big a headache for that. He tried to say something else, but she put a finger to his lips and he shut up, content just to stare at the emerald green eyes that he'd fallen into so many times before. As if on auto-pilot, Maria wound her arm around his neck and kissed him, and she had the sudden feeling that she was back in Afghanistan, kissing him for the first time.

Becker sighed as they broke apart and wrapped his arms around her in a hug that he was determined not to let go of, and rested his chin on the top of her head.

"They told me you were dead," he said quietly.

"I know," Maria twisted out of the hug and looked into his eyes. He raised an eyebrow.

"How come?"

"I punched Richards in the face. I don't think he likes me anymore," Becker's other eyebrow joined the first. "Oh come on, he had it coming," Maria said, a sarcastic grin on her face.

"Hmm. Good point,"

"You sound like you disapprove,"

"No, I'm just trying to picture the look on his face," Maria burst out laughing and sat down heavily on the crate. He sat next to her and they sat in silence for a few moments.

"What are you thinking?" Becker asked eventually.

"Oh, nothing interesting. Just what the hell Seb's gonna say. That kind of thing."

She told him all about her brother Seb, his wife Laura and their kids, Natalie and George. Natalie was eighteen and the only member of the Holland family to actually get any A-Levels, and George was the spitting image of his father. He was sixteen, already out of school, much to Laura's disappointment, and learning the new family business from Seb. Maria had never actually been told what Seb did for a living, and had learned not to question the packages that turned up at three in the morning. Maria had never told Becker much about her family, and he enjoyed sitting and listening to her chatter. The low rumble of a car brought the conversation to an end, and three ARC security guards appeared in the doorway. Becker mumbled something that sounded like "about time" but with an extra two syllables thrown in, and stood up, taking the car keys off one of his men.

They pulled up at the ARC an hour and a half later due to London traffic at 5 PM, and were met by a rather exasperated Lou.

"Did you know anything about this?" he asked, running up to Maria.

"About what? Lou, i have no idea what you're on about," Lou grabbed her arm and pulled her through the car park, across the Operations Area and into Lester's office. Becker almost had to run to keep up. They pushed through the door and were met by Danny, Sarah, Connor and Abby staring in blatant defiance at Lester. They had obviously been waiting for them to turn up.

"Right, now that we're all here," Lester stood up and indicated to the man standing the other side of the glass partition that overlooked the Ops Area. Three seconds later, three people, two men and a woman, filed into the room as if they owned the place.

"May i introduce Matt Anderson, our new Head of Security," The thickset man who could have been Becker's double if it wasn't for the thin moustache and far too cold air about him, inclined his head slightly. No one on the other side of the desk made any response. "Jess Parker, our new Administrator, and here to keep some kind of record of what's going on around here," The woman smiled and thought briefly about offering a handshake, before deciding otherwise. Connor stiffened. Computers were his area of expertise; Lester could easily get him to do any of this.

"And Phillip Burton," Lester concluded, before delivering the knock-out punch. "Who will, in a few hours, own half of the ARC and its research,"

For four and a half seconds, nobody spoke. Danny was the first to break the silence.

"Lester, if you don't mind explaining this, i think we'd all appreciate it," was all he said, to which Lester sat back down at his desk and fixed Danny with a look that suggested he already had and was repeating himself.

"The Minister has decided we can't handle this anymore, so has employed these three fine people to give us a hand," Connor and Abby both started speaking at once, telling Lester exactly what their opinions were on his new scheme. Lester turned his attention to a letter that lay half-written on his desk, giving them all their cue to leave. Lou gave Maria a look and led the way out of Lester's office, and was about to say something rather sarcastic, rude and probably amusing, when the Anomaly Detector went off.

"Right on bloody cue," Danny muttered.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3~Conspiracies**

Danny, Connor, Abby, and Becker bumped along the narrow country lane in the ARC's Toyota, following the beeping radar of the Anomaly Detector. Lou, Maria and Matt were following behind in the second car, along with another two of security guards. Sarah had stayed behind to brief Phillip and Jess, mainly because she was the only one who wanted to. Danny glowered at his rear-view mirror and got a cheery wave back from Lou in the driver's seat of the other car, which only made Danny glare harder. Abby laughed.

Suddenly, the anomaly detector went haywire and Danny made a sharp turn-off down an even narrower lane than the last, before rolling to a stop when it ended at the gate of a field overlooking a huge Victorian mansion, before a canal and then the rest of London. The view was spectacular. Danny sprang into action immediately, not in nearly a good enough mood to admire the scenery.

"Ok Connor, where is it?"

"Just over that hill," Connor pointed to the screen of the Detector.

"Right then, off we go. Anderson, make yourself useful and find out who owns this place, preferably before we get arrested for trespassing." Matt was about to shoot him a look that would have turned milk sour, when he was interrupted by Maria.

"Actually, I do," she said, managing to look really awkward and glare at a giggling Lou at the same time. "Technically it belongs to a really grumpy old man whose name i don't actually know, who rents it from the guy who employs all my household staff, but, still me. Technically." There was an awkward silence as everyone stared with raised eyebrows at Maria.

"Hang on, why do you own a field in the middle of nowhere?" Abby asked.

"Nice view?" Connor suggested. Abby shot him a look and told him to shut up.

"Um, actually, that's my house too," Maria pointed at the mansion down the hill. "Well, half of it's a museum and half of the other half my brother's taken over for reasons he still refuses to share, but for all intents and purposes it's my house. And I say it's fine to go romping across MY field, so can we go before my brother turns up?"

"Hate to break up the party but I've lost the signal." Connor started frowning at the detector and pressing various buttons on the back. "I think,"

"You think?" Danny stood over his shoulder and watched the screen.

"Yeah, it keeps fading in and out," Connor whacked his fist against the Detector, getting no result.

"Well why don't we go check it out?" Lou passed Maria and Abby tranquilisers before tucking his own into his back pocket and striding across the field. Matt slung his shotgun over his shoulder before following, and Becker shook his head in complete disbelief. The party arrived at the top of the hill and stopped short. They certainly hadn't been expecting that.

A found-faced man with grey hair and a very dirty military uniform sat on a tree stump, arms folded and a malicious grin on his face. Becker's eyebrows shot to the top of his forehead for the second time that day and he slowly lowered his gun, not taking his eyes off the man. Connor looked at him, confused.

"Is that..."

"Wilder." Becker cut him off.

"What the hell's he doing here?" Abby asked, not expecting an answer.

Wilder stood up and spread his arms out in greeting, revealing as he did so a device that looked like one of Helen's Anomaly Openers. Danny advanced cautiously; making sure his tranquiliser was in easy reach. Wilder moved first. As soon as Danny was close enough, he lunged, caught Danny by the neck and spun him around, pressing a pistol that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere into his forehead. In the next second, he had three tranquiliser guns, a shotgun and a pistol trained on his head.

"Put it down Wilder," Maria said quietly, "No one gets shot today, please, I'm not in the mood for writing death certificates." Wilder let out a laugh that sounded as if a pack of hyenas was standing in a circle around them all and tightened his grip on Danny's neck.

"So, the great Maria Holland still refuses to point a gun at a man. Of all the places to run, i must admit, I expected this one the least." The look of confusion crossed Maria's face in less than a split second before vanishing again.

"Wilder, put down the gun and give back Danny and then we can all talk like civilised human beings. You must've had some reason for bringing us here in the first place, am i right?" Wilder frowned like a child that didn't understand the instruction manual for his new toy, before giving Danny a rough shove and sitting heavily back down on the tree stump. Everyone except Matt holstered their own guns. Maria sat cross-legged on the grass in front of the stump and stared up at Wilder, who was still frowning like a sulking child.

"So, Wilder, what's going on, then? Why go to all this trouble to bring us here when you could've just knocked loudly on my front door, for example?"

"Well, I don't know where you live for a start," Wilder muttered. Lou and Maria exchanged a look.

"Ok, but that doesn't answer my question." Wilder let out his hyena laugh again

"You think I'm going to tell you my plan? I'm going to finish what Christine started, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" He stood up, brandished his Anomaly Opener and pressed a button, before stepping through the anomaly that appeared. It vanished as soon as he was through, and Matt lowered his gun.

"Who the heck was he? And who's Christine?"

"That was Captain wilder," Becker said turning to Matt. "He was working for a government agent named Christine Johnson who ran a military operation that shut down when she was killed. She was killed, although not directly, by Helen Cutter. Please tell me that Lester told you about her?" Matt nodded once. "Any more than that, Matt, we know about as much as you do."

"He's completely insane," Lou stated.

"No, not completely," Maria stood up and began pacing up and down in front of the tree stump. "He's mad, incredibly so, but he still has enough sanity to know what he's trying to do, and then actually do it."

"So he's mostly insane, angry, and has all of Johnson's resources at his fingertips, probably," Danny added

"That makes him dangerous, but what does he want? And what did he mean 'Finish what Christine started'?" Abby frowned. Maria stopped pacing and swore, making everyone jump.

"He contacted me six months ago wanting a very big pile of very heavy artillery," she said "I couldn't get them for him, obviously, but he must have other contacts." The others exchanged a look.

"Right, so he has some very big guns, he's a few sandwiches short of a picnic and he has a goal. That makes him more than dangerous, that makes him bloody lethal," Lou decided

"Guys," Connor piped up "Don't you think it's a bit weird that he made us come here, and then kind of hint at what he's up to and make a few threats, before disappearing only a few seconds later?"

"It's as if he wants us to stop him or something," Matt declared.

"We need to know more about what Johnson was doing," Abby said. "I know Lester knows more than he's letting on about it,"

"Ok, so we need to get more info about Johnson, track down whether or not Wilder managed to get weapons, find out what he's doing and stop him if we don't like it, agreed?" Danny looked around the circle for support. There were nods all round.

"You make it sound so bloody easy." Lou muttered.

Phillip leaned in the doorway of Lester's office and watched his new partner leaf through a big pile of faxes on his desk. No, not leaf, sort. Lester never "leafed". He straightened up when a particularly large pile of paper, stapled together three times, flew across the desk. Phillip picked it up and scanned the contents; it was everything Lester knew about Johnson's operation, including the CVs and personnel files of all her heads of staff. He flipped straight to Wilder's and saw nothing remotely inconspicuous, so flipped back again. He smirked to himself.

"Forty-five pages of operation details, and there's nothing in here that actually tells us what she was up to. How very Government-like of you." Lester narrowed his eyes. He didn't like being spoken to like that, but Phillip had a point. There was no useful information in those forty-five pages of "useful information", but, that said, he HAD been given that by the Minister, who had probably asked Johnson for it in the first place. He decided not to tell Phillip this, just in case he started going all adventurous and determined on him like Danny did whenever things like this came to his attention. Instead he turned his computer on and asked his assistant for a cup of tea. Phillip gave him a disbelieving look, which Lester dismissed.

"Fortunately," Lester announced five minutes later when his computer had got its act together and he'd drunk his tea, "I decided to do some research of my own," he clicked print and pages began spewing out of his printer. He already knew the exact details of Johnson's operation, right down to who she had employed to mow the lawn, but decided to let Phillip read for himself. Phillip did just that. By the time the team arrived back, a plan was formulating between them.

_Maria peeked cautiously over the edge of the building, checking for the ninth time in the space of five minutes that the sound-proofing on her jumpsuit was working properly. Three predators jumped over the blue Ford Fiesta lying on its side in the middle of the road and joined their friends in feasting on a human corpse. Maria couldn't remember if that was Danny or Lou. She turned and nodded to Becker, who nodded back and stood up. He waved an arm at the building to their left, and two more bright orange jumpsuits began advancing towards them. It was a darn good thing that Predators couldn't see. Maria heard the soft Ping in her ear that told her that the radios were within range, and was about to ask for a status update, when Connor's voice nearly knocked off her feet._

_ "LOOK OUT!" _

_Maria spun round, just in time to see Wilder step out of an anomaly. There was a gun in his hand, and before Maria could move, he fired it..._

_Point-blank into Becker's chest._

Maria awoke with a start, slumped in the leather chair behind her desk in the ARC's medical centre.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hello, Earth to Maria. Come in Maria Holland." Maria jumped at Lou's voice and shook her head in bewilderment. She'd been daydreaming again.

"What planet were you orbiting this time?" Lou grinned.

"Actually, i was sitting in Quark's Bar on DS9, drinking a rather nice strawberry blend of Romulan Ale and watching a very entertaining Bajoran comedy duo. They were going on about some kind of Klingon Delegator named Kladd, which I find amusing in itself. And there was no background noise from the Dabble tables, which never happens."

"Sounds like you do this kind of thing a lot," Lou teased.

"You would be surprised. I had dinner with Doctor Bashir the other day," Maria grinned, playing along with Lou.

"Oh, I bet you enjoyed THAT one," Lou grinned and ducked the biro that came flying at him.

"Please tell me you came in here for a reason, I was enjoying myself."

"Well, as much as I hate to bring you crashing back to reality, Jess wants you to look over the supply stock list and tell her what needs topping up. She did say it could wait until tomorrow though." Maria shot him a look that could have broken glass.

"Then wait it shall, i really need to finish these emails and could do with going home sooner rather than later." Lou nodded his approval and dropped a clipboard onto the rapidly growing pile of paper on her desk. There was a post-it somewhere about halfway down with 'To Do List' written on it.

"So what do you think Wilder meant? You know, with the whole running thing?" Lou asked, serious once again. Maria put her feet up on her desk and shrugged, not taking her eyes off the boring-looking email she had just opened up. She had no idea what Wilder had meant, but had a feeling that her dream had something to do with it. She didn't want to tell Lou about that, though. She still wasn't sure it was a dream. It had felt too real for that.

"Well, Danny's in yet another meeting with Lester and Phillip Whatshisname..."

"Burton,"

"Yeah, him. Anyway, Danny's talking to them and i think everyone else has gone home, so I'm gonna follow suit, unless there's anything else you need me to do?" Maria looked up and smiled at him.

"No, thanks Lou, you go on home, I'll see you tomorrow," Lou grinned and headed for the door. He got half way out of it before turning round again.

"You're different now that you have him back you know." He said. Maria smiled again.

"Yeah, i know," she agreed, deciding not to go off on a tangent of how and why. Lou gave her another grin and left, catching his shoulder on the door as he went. Maria rolled her eyes at the string of curses that followed and turned back to the email, fully intent on replying to it in the next ten minutes before going home herself. At the end of those ten minutes, she looked up to see Becker leaning in the doorway. He could've been there since Lou left, Maria mused. He folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at her.

"What?" Maria asked innocently. He straightened up and shook his head, a childishly mischievous look forming on his face.

"Oh come on, i know that look." Maria chided him.

"No, really, nothing, i just remembered something funny, that's all." Maria raised an eyebrow and reached under her desk to turn her computer off.

"Why is everyone in such a good mood today?" she thought out loud.

"Since when has that been a bad thing?" Becker leaned on her desk with his arms folded across his chest. Just like he used to, Maria thought.

"It's not, it's just weird, everyone being all happy considering the current crisis." she decided. She slid a pile of paper off her desk into her bag and got halfway across her office before realising that Becker was still staring at her.

"Seriously, why are you looking at me like that?" Becker got up and stood in front of her, sliding his hands round her waist.

"There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?" he almost whispered. Maria cursed inwardly. She really didn't want to tell him about her dream, and until now hadn't needed too, but she didn't see a way out of it this time. She chose her words carefully.

"Yes, actually, but I have a good reason,"

"I bet you do. Why don't you tell me anyway?" Maria sighed. He seemed to be able to read her mind, and not for the first time either. She could tell him, sure, but she didn't understand it herself yet, and wasn't entirely sure how to explain it. He pulled her into a hug.

"You don't have to tell me, I just want you to know that you can." He said. Maria looked into his eyes, those beautiful dark brown eyes that she had fallen in love with so many times before.

"I know. And i will, just not right now." he smiled and kissed her softly, and they stood there for a while in each other's arms, savouring the moment.

That moment was brought to an abrupt end when the shrill tones of Maria's phone decided to make themselves known to the world, and Maria sighed again.

"Seb?" Becker asked, his eyebrow once again raised. Maria nodded and flipped open her phone, reading the short text message: 'Oh, and don't forget the milk on your way home.' Maria cursed her brother, her good mood temporarily destroyed, and picked up her bag, leading the way out of her office. She and Becker walked hand in hand out to the car park, and stopped at Maria's purple Mazda MX5.

"You got that then," Becker observed. Maria laughed and congratulated him for stating the obvious, before kissing him and sliding into the driver's seat. She waited until he was safely out of the way before starting the engine and cruising out of the car park at a speed that would have only been safe for anyone else to do down an empty motorway. Becker chuckled to himself and headed back inside.

Abby threw herself out of the back of the silver Toyota, just as the three baby T-Rexs crashed into it all at once, causing it to flip onto its side and burst the front tire. She fired off a tranquiliser shot which somehow found its target, before running behind the second car. Maria handed her a new dart before jumping up and shooting the second dinosaur straight in the belly. It dropped to the ground, stunned, and its friend tripped over it, skidding along on its nose before flopping down in a heap, a victim of Danny's deadly accuracy.

"Please tell me that was the last one," Lou panted before jumping over the bonnet of the car and helping Abby to her feet.

"Matt, call Becker, tell him we're on our way back there with these three." Danny stood beside Maria, who was frowning down at the three baby t-Rexs lying in the grass. The owners of the playing field were probably going to want an explanation for the huge scratches in the ground, not to mention insurance for it.

"What's odd, is that they came through by themselves," Maria thought aloud.

"Come again?" Danny stared at her, puzzled.

"Well, I'm no expert, but i thought that T-Rexs didn't leave their parents until they were a year old and could hunt for themselves. I'm just curious as to why three 6-month olds are here alone." Danny shrugged. There certainly weren't any full grown Tyrannosaurus Rexs roaming around here, they would definitely have noticed that by now. He was about to relate this to Maria when Matt came jogging over.

"I'm not getting any response from Becker, or anyone with him either," he panted. In the time it took Danny to realise the gravity of what Matt had just said, Maria was already sprinting over to the only drivable car, pulling the keys out of her pocket as she went. She jumped into the driver's seat and fired up the engine, drumming her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel whilst waiting for the others. Lou got in beside her at the same time as Matt and Danny slid into the back, and Maria took off, leaving Abby in the field to call the tow-away company.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the anomaly site; the pavilion building of a once-pristine cricket pitch. The pitch was now covered in giant trench-sized ditches, and the pavilion itself looked like a pipe bomb had gone off inside. Danny and Matt ran towards the building, Maria and Lou in hot pursuit with ARC Med-Kits.

The inside of the pavilion was quiet. Too quiet. Whatever had caused the damage had either run off and was causing havoc elsewhere, or Becker had managed to get it back through the anomaly, but it was still too quiet. There weren't even any of those eerie dripping noises they put in horror films. Danny pointed to Lou and Matt and pointed down the corridor, before indicating that he and Maria were going upstairs, where the anomaly was. Lou nodded and pulled a tranquiliser rifle out of his rucksack before following Matt down the glass-strewn corridor. Danny loaded a dart into his own rifle and led the way up the stairs.

Upstairs was an even bigger mess than down. The roof had been completely removed and half of it was lying in the main room. There was glass everywhere and the wall behind the anomaly was missing too. Whatever had come through here had been very big and very angry. Danny whistled through his teeth at the destruction and began picking his way through the rubble towards the anomaly.

"What was that you were saying about T-Rexs not travelling alone that young?" he called over to Maria, who was standing on the edge of the floorboards, staring out over the cricket pitch. She tried to push the thoughts of what a full grown t-Rex could do to a human being, specifically Becker, out of her mind, and failed dismally. The fact that he could be dead floated across her thoughts and for the first time in ages she felt like crying. The feeling vanished when she saw shadows moving below her and she froze, about to signal to Danny. The low murmur of voices made her relax, and she realised that Matt and Lou must be underneath her. She ignored them and continued her staring contest with nature, determined to find whatever monster had done this.

Lou saw the blood first. He and Matt edged their way down the corridor, looking for any sign of what did this, and of any survivors. That's when he saw it, the dark red smear across the door to the ladies toilets. Lou showed Matt and pushed open the door cautiously. Matt raised an eyebrow and followed him in, gun raised. Lou gasped at the sight.

The back wall to the top floor had been destroyed and half the wall was missing from this floor too, leaving a gaping hole in the pavilion building that began at Lou's chest height and seemed to take half the roof with it, judging by the amount of rubble and plaster on the grass outside. Lou heard a whistle that sounded like Danny, so guessed that he and Maria had just seen the same thing from up there. A low moaning brought his attention to the far corner of the bathroom, where one of Becker's men, Stiller, was lying against a sink. At first glance his arm was broken and he was bleeding badly from an open wound on his leg. Lou knelt by him and wrapped a temporary bandage around his leg; he would stitch it up back at the ARC.

"Do you know what it was?" Matt asked Stiller, nearly pushing Lou out of the way.

"Jeez Matt, give him some space." Lou glared up at Matt before carefully manoeuvring Stiller's arm into a sling.

"T-Rex," Stiller mumbled.

"Shh," Lou told him. "Matt, help me get Stiller in the car, I'm taking him back to the ARC. Then find Danny, tell him we know what did this." Matt nodded and slid Stiller's unbroken arm over his shoulder.

Danny flipped his phone shut and strode back over to Maria.

"Lou's going back to the ARC with Stiller and Matt's coming up here." Maria nodded, still staring out across the cricket pitch, having a miniature nervous breakdown. How did a creature big enough to cause this much damage disappear into thin air? And, more importantly, where was Becker and the rest of his men? They'd found one already, which left two more and Becker himself. Maria turned back to the Anomaly. It was still locked, so there was no way Becker had gone through. Danny put an arm on her shoulder.

"We'll find him," he said. Maria nodded and looked up as Matt came in through the door to the stairs.

"Connor tells me that the prototype tracking devices he and Jess put on us are now working, and there's no sign of Becker anywhere. They've located Flyer and Lloyd though, Lou's picking them up now." Matt announced.

"And Connor and Jess are sure that the trackers work?" Maria was actually struggling to keep calm now.

"Hundred per cent. The only reason they can think of for not being able to find him is if he went through the anomaly, which he clearly didn't."

"What if it was a different anomaly," Danny wondered.

"What, you mean, another anomaly opened and he sauntered through that one?" Matt looked at Danny as if he was crazy.

"If there is one thing I know about Becker, it's that he doesn't saunter. If he went through an anomaly then he was either forced or had a pretty good reason, but that still doesn't explain why the nerds back at the ARC didn't pick a new one up." Maria was in no mood to be playing verbal games, so decided to make that clear.

"What if someone created an anomaly without us noticing, grabbed Becker, pulled him through, and closed it behind them?" Danny offered. "That's what I was suggesting, actually." He gave Matt a look that a psychiatrist would only be able to describe as smug.

"Fine, but who could've done that?" Matt remained clueless for another five seconds, before he got the message behind the looks Danny and Maria were giving him.

"Oh. Right. Of course." Matt realised with alarming suddenness exactly who could have managed that, and probably the person who had.

Wilder.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5~Invasion**

Connor sat in front of the Anomaly Detector and flicked back through the tracking device history folder. It seemed that Becker had been abducted before he and Jess had turned on the trackers, which was extremely unhelpful and a little annoying. They had no idea where Becker had been when he had disappeared, and everyone was getting restless. Connor jumped at a loud crash from Maria's office, and thought briefly about investigating. He decided it would be safer for him not to.

"Radio remote," Jess said, floating into the room. Floating was the only word Connor could use, short of skipping or hovering. She seemed to glide across the floor, simply because she was always so cheerful when she did it. "That remote went straight into a picture frame which then fell onto the floor in about seven pieces. Lou's calming her down now." she leant against the back of Connor's chair. "Anything?

"Nope, not a trace," Connor said, turning back to the detector. "It seems that he had already vanished when we turned the transmitters on." Jess' face fell.

"Are you sure we can't..."

"We only have information from when they began signalling the mothership. Everything before that is completely black. Total grey area. Zip." Jess now looked perfectly miserable, despite Connor's best effort at sarcastic humour. "Hey," he said, changing tack and actually smiling this time. "We'll find him. I don't know how yet, but we will." Jess managed a weak smile back, and Connor turned back to the detector. He stared hypnotically at the radar pinging round and round, constantly scanning Britain for any new anomalies, and tried to think of something he hadn't already done. He sighed and, just for the hell of it, clicked the tracker history folder open again and half-heartedly scanned the contents, already knowing he wouldn't find anything. A voice from the balcony overlooking the Operations Room made him jump.

"Hey Connor," Lou was leaning over the railing, debating whether it was sensible to jump down. He decided no, so ran the long way round and skidded to a stop in front of Connor's chair.

"Uhh, hi," Connor gave Lou his usual 'You're Crazy' look. "She's really not taking this well, is she?"

"Who, Maria? What makes you say that?"

"The loud crash i just heard all the way over here, maybe?" Connor's look changed into 'You've got to be kidding me' as Lou laughed.

"No, she's on the phone with her brother, but anyway, i had an idea. Have you tried pulling data straight from the trackers themselves? I mean, they still hold data when they're not transmitting, right?" Lou's sudden seriousness caught Connor off guard, and Lou had to repeat himself before Connor got the gist of what he was on about.

"You mean hacking the tracking devices themselves?" Connor looked at Jess, who shrugged. "That could work," he frowned, trying to figure out a way to do that. Lou rolled his eyes.

"Or you could just plug them into the computer like a memory stick," he offered, failing once again why computer nerds made life difficult for themselves. Connor turned red and quickly turned back to the computer, causing Jess to have a sudden coughing fit. Lou shook his head in despair as Connor rummaged around in a pile of wires, finding the one he wanted after about a minute. He disentangled it from the rest of them and plugged it into the back of the Trackers' charging unit. Jess, being the only one of the three who wasn't ridiculously excited by Lou's idea, spotted a major flaw in their plan.

"I hate to be Johnny Raincloud here, but how can we get location data off Becker's tracker when we don't have it?" There was a long pause. Connor leaned back in his chair, groaned, and was about to do his famous Admit-Defeat-Very-Quickly thing, when Lou decided to voice his technical genius.

"If I'm right," He said, jumping up and leaning over Connor, "We don't need it." he began opening up folders and scanning them at lightning speed, moving sections that Connor thought didn't mean anything into one file. Once finished, he straightened up and handed the controls back to Connor, who looked slightly wounded for a few seconds before scanning the file. He pressed a few keys and the computer de-encrypted the file, until Jess, Connor and Lou were staring at the data from all three trackers they currently had, starting from when they'd first been turned on back at the production factory. Lou leaned over Connor again and began pressing buttons at the speed of light, looking for something specific. Connor wriggled out of the chair, and Lou fell into it, still frowning at the screen. Jess gave up trying to follow the text rolling across the screen, and instead wondered if Lou was actually a Cyborg. The look on Connor's face told her that he was thinking the same thing. After about ten minutes, Lou had found what he was looking for.

"And voila, the ninety nine per cent precise location of Becker at his disappearance," Lou announced in a very bad Inspector Clousseu accent. He grinned at the looks of confusion and bewilderment on their faces.

"How did you..?" Connor asked, typing the co-ordinates into his sat-nav.

"Easy. these things clock when they're within ten metres of another one, so, seeing as Lloyd was conveniently standing next to Becker when he got snatched, his tracker knew that Becker's was right next to it." Lou looked triumphant.

"Hold on, how do you know Becker didn't just, i don't know, go further away to investigate something?" Jess asked, logical as usual.

"Because he didn't come back again, and you two turned the transmitters on about a minute later, so logic dictates..." Lou let the sentence hang and gave Connor back his chair.

"Please don't tell me that we could've just asked Lloyd and found all this out that way?" Connor asked, hoping the answer was no.

"No, mainly because he's still unconscious," Lou said smugly.

"You love having the last word, don't you?" Jess smiled innocently at Lou, who grinned like an overexcited boy, and ran back around the Operations Room to Maria's office. Connor and Jess exchanged a look before getting up and finding Danny.

"Seb, I can't...No...No...Of course not...Oh bloody hell, ok then...Oh, yeah, sure...Fine...Whatever, I'll see you then...Don't push your luck...Goodbye Seb." Maria slammed her phone shut with probably a little more force than necessary, and groaned, probably a little louder than necessary too. Lou's head appeared in the doorway, winning no response from Maria whatsoever.

"Do I want to know?" He asked, assessing the damage to the picture frame on the floor. Luckily, there had been nothing in it.

"Sebastian has decided that he is too insecure to go to Natalie's parent's evening by himself, and seeing as Laura can't go, he has roped me into it AGAIN! As much as i adore my dear niece, i do have more important things to do than listen to seven really monotonous teachers go on for five whole minutes about how amazing her A-Level results were. I have seen her report card; I know how brilliant she is. I do not need to attend. Do you know how many arguments i can have with Phillip about not ordering supplies on time in an hour? About three, i reckon. I don't even know why she has to have a parents evening in the first place, she's leaving school in three weeks! Seriously, i thought Seb had learned from taking me last year but no, he goes off on his 'you need to observe and influence your niece's future' speech, and when i ask him why he won't go himself, it's because, and i quote, "Everyone stared at me funny the last time." Sometimes i think he's four, not forty!" Maria ended this magnificent speech by banging her head on her desk, and then being surprised at how much it hurt.

"Finished?" Lou asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes. I am finished." Maria sat up.

"I could always go for you," Lou offered, picking up the pieces of glass on the carpet.

"Nat won't be there, silly," Maria teased, giving him a look.

"Aww, darn, i haven't seen her for ages," Lou complained. Maria let out a bark of a laugh.

"I don't call two days ages. I'm actually surprised she hasn't figured it out yet," Maria shook her head in mock despair and Lou poked his tongue out at her. Lou had fancied Natalie ever since he'd moved into Maria's house a year ago, and the only member of the family who wasn't aware of it was Natalie herself, much to the amusement of her brother, George.

"Besides, i thought you said you never wanted to go back there," Maria raised an eyebrow.

"When did i say that?"

"Yesterday."

"Oh. So i did. I meant when George is around. He annoys me. I think he has some kind of sadistic need to see me suffer."

"You bring it on yourself,"

"I do not! The other day he threatened to tell Nat about my Friends collection! You know what she'll think of me if that happens!"

"Lou Walker, you are allowing yourself to be bullied by a fifteen year old boy. So, he will, and probably already has, told his sister that the guy who has been flirting with her for a year watches Friends religiously, and she now probably thinks you're gay for doing so, that doesn't mean you are or that George has the moral high ground. What on earth would your mother say?"

"She would probably start encouraging him. And anyway, that's off the point. Your nephew is unhinged. As in seriously unhinged."

"Is that your medical opinion Dr Walker or a personal view?"

"That is my medical opinion. And I just had an idea!" Lou's face changed from hurt to ecstatic in less time than Maria thought possible and he sprinted out of the door, nearly falling off the balcony as he ran into the railing outside. Maria heard him shout something down to Connor and sighed, turning to her computer and adding Nat's parents evening into her online calendar.

Danny stared across the table at Phillip and Lester, very close to exploding for the third time that day. They had all just been told that Connor Jess and Lou had worked out where Wilder opened his anomaly and kidnapped Becker, and for reasons 'too technical for him to comprehend,' they couldn't go looking for him. Sarah had even stopped tinkering with the anomaly opening device and had given it back to Connor in full working order, and, according to Phillip, someone was trying to bring Helen's computer thingamajig back through the racetrack anomaly, which was still open, for some reason. As soon as Phillip had said this, he Lester had launched into an argument about what was more important, human life or scientific research. He exchanged a look of complete and utter irritation and despair with Sarah on the other side of the glass of Lester's office, and decided to get comfortable in his chair. His thoughts drifted to what Wilder might want Becker for. He could be luring them all into some kind of trap and needed Becker as bait, which was the most likely of Danny's scenarios. On the other hand, he could just want answers, or, in the extremist and most Sci-Fi movie based, Wilder could need Becker for some genetically locked device that only Becker's handprint could open, but that was extremely unlikely. Danny had probably just been watching far too many Doctor Who re-runs. He eventually ran out of possible ideas and, seeing as writing them down might be a bit disrespectful, his thoughts turned to what Lester and Phillip might do if he got up and left at that precise moment. The result made him laugh to himself and for about three minutes he was very tempted to see if he was right, but decided against that too. He looked at his watch. Twenty minutes had gone by since he had come in here, only five of which had been of any use. Danny buried his head in his hands and was about to call an end to the squabble, when every single security alarm in the entire ARC went off at once. Next second, the lights went out and were replaced with the red equivalent of what you might find on top of a police car, and the irritating sirens that told the whole neighbourhood that someone unwelcome had just come in rose to a crescendo. Danny leapt out of his chair and nearly went through the door without opening it, not bothering to check if Phillip and Lester were following him. Connor, Lou, Abby and Maria met him in the main corridor, followed by Jess, who was prodding at some kind of less-stylish version of an iPad.

"We have a security breach in Corridor C, Section 5," Jess announced, her voice ringing out over the intercom at the same time.

"And that is...Where?" Danny had no idea of the technical layout of the ARC, and preferred to go by "The fire exit opposite Abby's lab," as Jess quickly translated. Five men ran past them just as the alarms cut out as suddenly as they'd started, leaving an eerie silence filled with flashing red. Danny breathed a sigh of relief.

"Actually, that's not a good thing," Jess frowned at her computer and pressed a few more buttons. "I didn't turn that off." Danny froze. The sound of gunfire echoed through the corridor, and two of the five men who had just run past them came charging back down it. One of the two skidded to a stop in front of them, leaving the other to run back to the corner and stand peering round it, pistol raised in readiness.

"It's Wilder," The first one, Smith, panted. "He's taken over all the ARC's safe locations and managed to get all the way outside without us noticing. You guys need to get out of here, now." He handed Lou a pistol and followed them back down the corridor, walking backwards making sure no one was following them.

"Did Wilder have Becker with him?" Maria asked Smith.

"I didn't see him, but i think Wilder said something to Doctor Page about someone getting away from him,"

"Doctor Page? Wilder was talking to Sarah? Why?" Smith stopped and looked Maria straight in the face.

"You didn't know? Doctor Page let Wilder in here. She's working with him now."

The silence that followed seemed to last forever. No one could believe it at first; that Sarah had betrayed them and was helping Wilder, but the genuine look on Smith's face left no room for any doubt. Danny had to lean against the wall to steady himself, and everyone seemed to be in a trance until Morris, the security guard with Smith, came sprinting down the corridor. Smith blinked as if waking up from a dream and ushered Abby, Connor, Lou, Maria, Danny and Jess out of the fire exit and down the stairs round the back of the ARC's kitchens. Morris fired a couple of shots back through the door before locking it and jamming the bar-push system on the inside.

"IS there somewhere safe you guys can go?" Smith asked, loading a new magazine into his pistol.

"Yes," Maria nodded before Danny or anyone else had a chance to feel overwhelmed. "Do you know where Matt is?"

"He should already be at the car," Smith pointed behind Maria's shoulder to the car park. "Good luck,"

"You too," Maria replied, already having the sinking feeling that they would never see him or Morris again. The six of them turned and ran over to the Toyota where Matt was indeed already waiting. It turned out that Matt already knew that Sarah was now the bad guy, and was extremely impatient to get going. The only problem now was that they had nowhere to go, and that only five people would fit in the Toyota.

"We can go to my place, Sarah doesn't know where that is," Maria decided, impatient.

"Well, no, but neither do any of us." Matt pointed out.

"Fine, Danny and i can take my car, and Lou drive this one. Simple? Yes i thought so. Let's go!" Danny shrugged, threw Lou the keys to the Toyota and followed Maria to the Mazda. She started up the engine and as soon as he had his seatbelt on, did a three-point turn out of the car park with Lou in hot pursuit.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6~Revenge**

"I hate this," Abby voiced from the back seat of the Toyota. "Running away from everything because it's been taken over by a madman and isn't safe for us anymore," She stared out of the window at the grimy backstreets that Lou was taking them through, avoiding the main roads in the hope that Wilder would get hopelessly lost if he tried to follow them. Maria and Danny had gone a different way and they would meet up at the house, presuming, of course, nothing went horribly wrong.

"I think it just shows how much our security needs improving," Connor said, glancing suggestively at Matt. No one said anything back to that, so silence engulfed the back seat once again as Lou rounded a particularly tight corner. He stopped completely once around it, and Connor leaned forward in his seat, peering through the windscreen to see what the hold-up was. He regretted it almost immediately.

"Lou," Matt said slowly, his eyes fixed on the black SUV at the end of the alleyway. He didn't like the look of the ominous shape on top of it. Even though he could only see the basic outline, he had a very good idea of what it was. "Reversing might be a good idea around now," Lou jumped and threw the automatic gear box into reverse, grating the Toyota's door panel on the corner he had rounded only thirty seconds before. As soon as the labyrinth of back roads widened enough, Lou turned and drove out of the alleys as quickly as corners would allow. He turned onto the M5; desperately hoping that the busy roads would prevent what he knew was going to happen anyway. The black SUV rounded the last corner after them, and Jess screamed. Lou put his foot down and swerved madly through the Monday afternoon traffic, painfully aware of the consequences of going in a straight line for too long when a car with a heavy machine gun set on top of it was chasing them. Connor clamped his hand over Jess' mouth before she could permanently deafen anyone, and tried to control the feeling of panic and impending doom that was slowly creeping up on him. Lou swerved around car after car, performing manoeuvres that Matt only thought possible for a F1 driver, earning horn blasts for his trouble. To their dismay, the SUV matched their every move. Matt pulled the emergency pistol out of the glove box and leaned out of the window, trying to at least burst a few tires before the passenger of the SUV actually started using the HMG on top of it. He ran out of luck, however, when the sun roof of the pursuing car opened and Wilder himself stood up and positioned himself behind the trigger of the HMG, laughing to himself the whole time. Matt couldn't see who was driving, but they were doing a pretty good job. By the time Wilder fired, Matt could hear the wild Hyena cackles coming from the man, loud, inhuman noises that sent shivers down his spine. He yanked himself back inside just as Wilder let fly a round of bullets into the back of the Toyota and Jess screamed again, throwing herself into the foot well. Abby crouched down as low as she could get with Jess in the way and Connor grabbed the pistol Matt handed him and started shooting out of the now broken window in the back.

"Everyone hang onto something!" Lou shouted from the front and slammed the handbrake on, wrenching the steering wheel around at the same time, performing a handbrake turn that a Hollywood stunt driver would have been proud of. He released the handbrake half a second before sliding into a green Ford Focus and put his foot down, driving straight at Wilder. He and Matt slid down under the dashboard as more bullets rained down on the Toyota, filling the bodywork with holes and turning Lou's headrest into a pin cushion. The Toyota whizzed straight past the SUV at about seventy miles an hour, Wilder following them with the HMG the whole time. Lou saw Matt jolt violently before heaving himself up into his seat, breathing heavily. He jerked the wheel hard; earning a whole load of smoke and tire squeal, and the Toyota skidded off the M5 into another labyrinth of back alleys and tall buildings. Even though the unmistakable smell of human blood was filling the car, Lou didn't stop until he was fairly certain no one could have followed them this far in. He rolled the car to a stop and turned around in his seat to Matt.

The average Monday afternoon for Natalie Holland was fairly straightforward, and pretty darn repetitive. She got home from school at around three thirty, just as Laura was leaving for work, and George was usually in the games room, beating Seb in a game of Halo, Call of Duty or some other strange fighting game on his Xbox. Natalie would go upstairs and come back down again ten minutes later demanding to know where George had hidden her laptop. She would usually be pointed in the general direction of the living room, where she would then curl up and flick between Facebook, Twitter and her phone for an hour and a half. George and Seb would still be at it when she went into the kitchen to prepare dinner and by seven thirty the boys would be off the games consoles and Nat would have dinner perfectly timed so that she was serving up at the exact moment Laura walked in through the door. Natalie was just awesome like that. Lou would turn up at nine or so having picked up a pizza or something on his way home, and Maria would arrive at ten, grab an apple and then go straight to bed. That was what usually happened. This routine had only ever been interrupted six times since moving into the house just over a year ago, and even then had it been for something trivial like door to door salesmen or packages. There had never been something as huge as a strange man claiming to be a friend of her aunt's arriving at the front door before. This man had arrived halfway through Natalie's computer time, and she really didn't like being interrupted during such an important social ritual. She answered the door giving off as many negative vibes as she could, which wasn't hard considering the fact that her father and brother had blatantly refused to answer it for her. She had expected either a neat, well groomed man holding a cardboard box trying to sell her something, or a small, ratty-looking man holding a cardboard box for her father. She was not expecting a man with blood and dirt stains on his face and clothes, looking like he did not want to be messed with and asking if her aunt was home. Her first reaction was genuine fear that he had been sent to kill Maria or something, and she had said no, aiming to shut the door instantly and lock it. She didn't, though. Instead, the sudden look of panic and concern on his face made her curious, and she guessed that this man wasn't trying to kill her aunt, but was probably making sure no one else had. She narrowed her eyes at him instead.

"Who are you, anyway?" she asked, which she probably should have done first.

"Oh, sorry, my name's Ryan Becker..." He was about to say something like 'I doubt she's ever talked about me,' when Natalie's eyes widened further than Becker thought humanly possible.

"Oh my gosh, she talks about you, like, all the time!" she pushed the door open further and stepped out of the way, giving him room to come in. Becker felt himself redden slightly and followed her inside, realising how unlike Maria Nat actually was.

"So... yeah, she's not actually home yet, she doesn't get here till late but i guess you already knew that," Natalie chatted. "I can give her a call though, and you're welcome to stay here and wait for her..." She paused, looking slightly embarrassed. "Please don't take this the wrong way or anything, but you look like you could use a shower..." Becker turned scarlet and laughed slightly, silently grateful that Maria did talk about him to her niece. If she didn't, this would have been a lot more awkward.

Half an hour later, Becker had showered and was now leaning against the kitchen counter in jeans and a t-shirt of Seb's, which Nat had managed to scrounge off him after having to explain three times who Becker was and all the probable reasons why Maria had never mentioned him before. Nat had also phoned Maria, only gotten answer phone and spent the next five minutes fretting because Maria never turned her phone off. Becker had told her not to worry about it and that she was probably just in a meeting or something. He fought to control the slight panic creeping over him, at least enough so that it wouldn't show. Her phone wouldn't be on, he knew that. If he was right in thinking that Wilder had invaded the ARC, Maria and the rest of the team would be on the run, and would have gotten rid of their phones ages ago.

The doorbell brought their conversation to an end and Natalie went to answer it, a huge grin on her face at the story she'd been telling Becker about Seb and Maria's childhood. For the second time that day, she didn't like what she found on the front porch.

Once again, a man covered in blood stains stood there, but whereas Becker's had been his own, it wasn't the case this time. This time Lou stood there, anger written all over his face and Natalie had to jump out of the way as he ran through the hall and into the main house towards Maria's medical wing, not even stopping to say hi. This wing also served as a mini-hospital for members of the public visiting the museum, and rarely saw anything worse than a child's scraped knee or a mother's migraine. Natalie followed Lou at a distance, realising she probably didn't want to know whose blood it was that Lou had all over his hands. Lou ran through the clean, white room at the back of the house, nearly knocking down the back door that couldn't be opened from the outside and headed straight for the silver Toyota pick-up truck parked on the driveway outside. Natalie watched in horror as Lou and another man lifted a third person out of the passenger seat and took him inside. They were followed by two women, one looking absolutely terrified and the other succeeding a little better in hiding it. Becker appeared behind her and led her out by the shoulders, whispering something about not wanting to watch in her ear. His hands were like vices; he didn't like what he was seeing either.

"Was he..." Natalie gulped and the next word came out as a whisper, "Dead?"

"No," Becker looked her in the eyes. "I'm sure he'll be fine, Lou's not going to let him down,"

"Who is he?"

"His name is Matt Anderson, he's the head of security where your aunt and i work," Becker didn't want to lie to Natalie; he owed her that much.

"Tell me, please, what do you, Lou and Maria actually do? I really don't think that private zoo research gets you shot that many times with that big a gun," Tears rolled down Natalie's face, but whether it was because she knew Matt wasn't going to make it or because she'd just realised her aunt had been lying to her, Becker didn't know. He debated with himself whether or not to tell her, not making a decision until a loud crashing from the medical room sent him running in. Lou stood with his back to the door, running his hands through his hair and getting Matt's blood over himself. By the look of it, though, he was already covered in it anyway. There was a dent in the thin metal tool table next to him, and Becker guessed that he had just punched it. Jess was crying, hard, and Connor had one arm around her and the other around Abby. He met Becker's eyes and shook his head. Becker turned to the operating table in the centre in the room and stared at the man lying on it. He hadn't known Matt very long, but, despite the fact that one was always trying to appear tougher than the other, they had been friends, or Becker had thought so at least. But now Matt was dead, and from the looks on everyone's faces, Wilder had killed him. He was going to pay for that.

Maria and Danny rolled up in the gravel driveway of the Holland family home, blissfully unaware of what had happened to the others in the last forty-five minutes. They continued in their state of ignorance up until the point when Maria saw the front door, which was standing wide open. That was when alarm bells started ringing, and she quickened her pace, calling out to Natalie as she went. She knew that she would get no response from either George or Seb, and if there was something happening, she didn't think they would even know about it. Natalie came running from the kitchen, tears streaming down her face, and threw herself at Maria, wrapping her arms tightly around her in a hug. Maria didn't even have the chance to ask what was going on before Lou appeared at the top of the stairs, buttoning up a new shirt. Natalie released Maria and threw herself at him instead, nearly pulling him down the stairs. He pointed through to the living room before attempting to calm Nat down, and Danny and Maria exchanged a look before following Lou's directions.

Usually, when Maria got home from the ARC, the entire living room was cosily lit and Seb and Laura would be on the sofa, watching something on TV. Today, however, all the lights were on and the first person Maria saw was a rather white faced George, sitting behind a rather red faced Seb, who had evidently been mid-argument with Connor. He threw his arms in the air dramatically and turned on Maria.

"And when, precisely, was i going to be told about this? That you have invited your entire office to stay for, and i quote, 'Not quite sure yet, as long as it takes to get everything sorted.' And then i find that, behind my back, someone DIES in my house!" Seb stared at Maria for a few long moments, trying to control himself. "And i guess from the look on your face that you didn't know about that either," He concluded in a much quieter voice.

"No." Maria claimed, bluntly. "I didn't." she looked past Seb at Connor, and then around the room at everyone else. She saw Abby on the sofa opposite George, comforting Jess who was still crying her eyes out. Relief flooded through her when she noticed Becker leaning against the French windows behind them, only to vanish just as quickly when she noticed the absence of Matt. She turned to Lou who had just come into the room, looking for an explanation.

"Wilder," he said, reading the look on her face. "He had a HMG mounted on his jeep, I..." Lou took a deep breath and there was a long awkward pause. "There was nothing i could do," he said at last. Maria got the impression that Natalie had just spent the last ten minutes trying to convince him of that. She nodded slowly and turned back to her brother.

"And yes, my colleagues are staying here, and no, i don't know how long for." She turned to leave, but had another thought. "And Seb, this is my house, not yours." She moved past Lou out of the room and everyone started breathing again when the door clicked shut. George, now a slightly more natural colour, stood up.

"Well, now that that's settled, I'd better show you to your rooms, hadn't I?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7~Persuasion**

The days spent at Maria's house grew more and more tense as they progressed. Everyone was restless, especially Abby, who had never liked waiting for anything. George eventually showed her the gym when he got tired of her making dents in the sofa cushions. Seb had eventually given in to showing Connor his computers, which was now where he spent most of his time, trying to hack into the ARC's CCTV system through Jess' handheld security monitor. He had also roped in Seb to help, seeing as he seemed to have even more computer knowledge than Bill Gates and Steve Jobs put together. Unfortunately, Becker and Matt had recently upgraded the camera systems, and Becker didn't have the slightest clue how to hack them. Seb had rolled his eyes and muttered something about Government taking shortcuts before turning back to the screen. Danny, for one, was going mental. He had wanted to try phoning Lester only to have been delivered the whole 'they could trace the call back here' lecture from Maria. He declared that he wasn't going to sit around all day doing nothing for weeks, only to end up doing just that. By the time two weeks had past, Jess, of all people, finally ran out of patience.

"Are we seriously just going to sit here indefinitely waiting for a solution to just pop up and say hi? I mean, we've been here for weeks and what have we done? Absolutely nothing, that's what!" She crashed down onto the window sofa in the kitchen and stared at everyone at once. Seb raised one eyebrow over his cornflakes.

"I don't know if you've noticed, Jess honey, but that's pretty much what we've been doing for the past week or two," He flashed an accusing look at Becker. "Seeing as even I have run out of ideas and the genius to my right didn't think to install a few fail safes in his CCTV unit,"

"For God's sake Seb, don't start this again," Maria whined, peering in the fridge. She came out with a carton of fruit juice and unscrewed the cap. "For the umpteenth time, even if there WERE any trapdoors in the system, Sarah would know about them and we couldn't use them anyway. And besides, Ryan's on your left." She took a swig from the carton and put it back in the fridge, winking at Lou who was giggling at the other end of the table. Becker took a moment to look smug; he and Seb had been engaged in verbal warfare ever since Maria had told Seb about their relationship, and since then, Becker had been under the impression that Seb didn't like him very much. Seb glared through his fringe.

"I'm just saying that anyone with half a brain would have made sure that there is some kind of trapdoor in every security system they installed." Seb shrugged.

"No, that's what someone with uncontained paranoia would do," Maria clapped Seb on the back. "But never mind about that. Speaking of computers, where's Connor?" Seb shrugged again.

"Left him in my office, he said he was on to something, but then again, he's been saying that all week."

"Ok, cool," Maria smiled like a saint and left the kitchen.

"Oh no you don't," Seb got up too quickly and knocked his chair over, not stopping to pick it up before running after Maria. "You are not going in there!" Maria cackled and sprinted up the stairs. Natalie rolled her eyes at Lou, who grinned back. Sometimes Maria and Seb acted like four year olds. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. Abby peeked around the kitchen door, wondering if something was going to explode if she dared enter.

"What was all that about?" she asked, picking up Seb's chair and sitting down on it.

"Maria's been trying to see what's in Seb's study for years," Lou explained. "To be honest, i think Connor's the only person who has ever been in there, besides Seb himself," Abby shrugged and reached across Becker for the newspaper.

Lester sat in front of his desk and stared at the two grey eyes belonging to the man behind it, laying his feet across it as if he owned the place. Actually, come to think of it, Wilder kind of did own the place at the moment. He glanced at Burton, who had tried to put up a fight and was now duct taped to the chair he was sitting in. He turned his gaze back to Wilder, who had been sitting there for almost ten minutes now without saying anything.

"Ok, be honest, did you even have a plan anymore?" Lester allowed a smile to creep into his voice. "I mean, we've been here for a while now and, well, nothing's happened, has it?" He was vaguely aware of Burton rolling his eyes at him and ignored it. He leaned his hands together on the desk, the same way he would if he was interrogating someone himself. Trying to be as intimidating as possible, he raised his eyebrows at Wilder, not actually expecting an answer.

"Well, no not really," Wilder announced. "I was just going to; you know, steal all your research and run off again, buuuuuuuut..." Wilder dragged the word out and didn't bother to finish his sentence.

"But what?" Lester asked, quietly.

"Well, if i told you, i would ruin the surprise, wouldn't i?" Wilder swung his legs off the desk and stood up, pressing a buzzer on one of the drawers. A security guard swept into the room, standing at attention in a very millitary-esque manner.

"Take them to..." wilder thought for a moment, "The Menagerie," He decided.

"And if i press this button..." Connor announced to the rest of the team, "Taa daa." He pressed the enter key dramatically and the ARC's camera feeds sprang up in the screen, allowing them to spy on what Wilder was doing in the ARC. A quiet cheer went round the crowd gathered behind Connor's chair, except for Seb, whose glower only deepened; he was already annoyed at letting everyone in his office, and didn't particularly want his keyboard broken either.

"Lighten up;" Maria noticed his expression, "I've been in here before anyway. I don't suppose you've got security there too, do you?" She asked Connor, fully expecting the answer to be a resounding 'No.'

"What, so two and a half weeks of toil and hardship isn't good enough for you? You want it gold-plated as well?" Seb shot her a glance that could have pierced tank armour.

"Actually, Seb, I managed to get that too, somehow," Connor announced, pressing a few more keys. "So, what do you guys want to do? Kill the lights? Activate Deadlock? You name it, i can do it," he caught the disbelieving look Becker shot at him and shifted in his seat. "With Becker's various passwords, obviously," he muttered.

"First, we need to see if Lester and Burton aren't being fed to the Dracorex. Then we can focus on getting rid of Wilder and Sarah and then we can go from there," Danny decided.

"Dracorexes are herbivores," Abby muttered. Danny glared at her. He wasn't in the mood for banter, he was too tense. Everything was falling into place so easily, far too easily for his liking. Something didn't feel right. He watched Connor flick through various screens until he found Lester's office, complete with a grinning Wilder but resounding lack of Lester himself. He watched as Sarah swept in, dropped something on the desk, say something that the microphone less cameras couldn't pick up, and left again, Wilder smiling like a hyena stalking a buffalo all the while. Danny shuddered. Connor went back to flicking through camera shots, and had to do a re-sweep before he found Lester and Burton. He thought Danny had only been kidding when he mentioned them being fed to the Dracorex. They were in the Menagerie, backed against a wall and using one of Lester's office chairs as a defence against the Dracorex. It was a herbivore, but it was a territorial herbivore. It didn't like Lester and Burton being there, and Connor knew for a fact that they didn't like it either. He started navigating the security network, typing in system codes faster than Maria could read them.

"I'm going to go make lunch," she announced and left the room. Lou and Natalie went with her, leaving Danny, Jess, Seb and Becker vividly glued to the screen. Connor stopped typing and frowned. He had managed to access the ARC's security database in less than a minute, and hadn't even needed any of Becker's passwords. Alarm bells were ringing in his head and everyone behind him seemed to be holding their breath. He turned to Danny, ready to hit the enter button and let Burton and Lester out of the Menagerie and lock Wilder in Lester's office at the same time. On the other hand, it could be one giant trap. Danny stared thoughtfully into the middle distance for a few seconds before nodding at Connor.

"Go for it," he decided. Connor nodded, turned back to the screen, took a deep breath and pressed his finger down on the enter key. The screen flashed green and the team watched the door to the menagerie pop open.

Burton swung the chair again, already getting tired. He knew that the Dracorex could outmatch both him and Lester, and it was only a matter of time before it decided to speed things up. He imagined what that madman Wilder would be doing; sitting in Lester's office and probably watching them over the camera feeds. He glared up at the camera in the far corner of the room before dodging another swipe. He felt a tap on his arm and looked down at Lester sitting next to him. He was pointing at the door to the Menagerie, which was open a crack. They exchanged a look, and Lester slowly started inching his way towards the door whilst Burton distracted the Dracorex in the opposite direction. Lester started counting down on his fingers, and on zero Burton threw the chair at the Dracorex and sprinted for the door. He dived through it and kicked the door shut behind him, hearing the locking mechanism click into place just as the Dracorex slammed into it at full speed. He started laughing, then caught Lester's look and shut up. Standing up and trying to regain as much dignity as possible, he turned to Lester.

"So what now?"

"I don't know. i can't imagine that Wilder let us out of here simply out of the kindness of his heart, so I'm guessing that Connor managed to hack the system," Lester looked smug, which Burton was getting tired of seeing.

"Or he's testing us, daring us to escape. Then he'll, i don't know, set some weird futuristic monster on us or something,"

"It's been done before," Lester muttered, leading the way through the corridors. They were surprisingly quiet, as if Wilder expected there to be no trouble at all. Lester started to think of the German Shleiffen Plan in World War One, and how much of a failure that was because of an underestimation of the enemy. Well, Wilder had certainly underestimated the team. That was for certain. Just as this thought ran through his head, the door ahead of them swung closed and locked, leaving them trapped in the corridor. Burton cursed and watched as the doors to every room leading off from the corridor closed too, giving them nowhere to go.

The look on Connor's face answered Maria's question before she even opened her mouth to ask it. The words 'Did you really think it would be that easy?' had appeared on the screen in flashing red, complete with a little picture of someone laughing like a maniac. Wilder had anticipated their every move, had deliberately let them hack into the security network and then forced them out again.

"I still don't get the point of going to all that trouble just to make us feel disappointed," Danny voiced. "I mean, surely it would have taken much less effort to just keep us out."

"Well, he has gone insane, maybe he's just trying to prove a point," Becker offered.

"Keeping us on our toes," Connor mused. Seb, who had been uncharacteristically quiet during the whole conversation, suddenly looked up.

"He did it to track our location," He announced.

"You what? how could he find where we are by blocking us from the system?" Danny was confused.

"No, he allowed us in, then blocked us," Seb clarified.

"I still don't see what you're getting at," Danny gave Seb a look and he sighed, clearly not happy with sharing this information with anyone, especially not his sister.

"A few years back, I developed the technology to track the location of any computer system that was using a server, so, for example, if you were one of Facebook's administrators, you could locate the computers that each account was being accessed from. A couple of months ago, I sold this technology to a friend of mine who agreed to set up a market for it. What I'm getting at is that if Wilder knows the right people, he could easily get his hands on that tech. Now, I don't know if he does have it or not, but that would explain why he allowed us to access the system before cutting us off. And, if that is the case, he now knows exactly where we are." A long and loud silence followed Seb's speech. No one quite believed what he was saying, and didn't want to face it if it was true. Maria eventually broke the silence after what seemed like hours.

"So we have to leave," she said calmly. "I guess we'd better start packing."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8~Escape**

"I'm coming with you," Seb announced, leaning in the doorway of Maria's room. She didn't look up from the pile of clothes she was shoving in a bag for her, Abby and Jess

"Why?"

"Because i feel somewhat responsible for all this."

"Wow. You, responsible? That's new."

"Hey, I can do responsible, I just choose not to most of the time."

"Fine, you can come too. You never know, we might need you at some point. Please don't forget to tell the kids, I do NOT want Laura trying to call you in the middle of a crisis."

"You're in a really bad mood right now, aren't you?"

"Yes. Yes i am."

"Fair enough," Seb shrugged off the doorframe and left Maria to her packing. He found Natalie and George in the middle of a wrestling match on the living room floor that had probably started as a battle for the TV remote. Now, however, the remote was completely forgotten.

"Oi, you two, whatever you do, don't damage the furniture. Your mother will have a fit." Seb shouted at them.

"Don't worry Dad, our argument won't reach the upholstery," George yelled back from under the coffee table. Seb cringed; he had a bad feeling that it already had.

"And by the way, I'm going with your aunt on her little escapade," he said casually as he rescued a vase from the pair of socks that missed George's head. Natalie jumped up.

"What? If you can go, I'm coming too!" She sounded like she'd been trying to wheedle her way into this for a while.

"No, you're not. You're too young, and i don't need to worry about you and Maria at the same time. You are staying here."

"You and Maria never worry about each other. And I'm eighteen, that's old enough to buy alcohol, therefore old enough to come adventuring with you."

"I said no, Natalie!"

"Give me one good reason!" Seb ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. He was about to throw back some witty, sarcastic remark about her still having A-level coursework to do or something, which he knew she didn't, when Maria appeared next to him and answered for him.

"People die doing what i do, Nat," she said. "I don't want to risk that happening to you, ok? You saw Matt..." She trailed off as Natalie nodded. Maria seemed satisfied and smiled, but Seb knew the look that crossed Nat's face. She would get herself involved with this, some way or another.

"You ready to go?" Maria turned on him.

"Yeah, i lent the guys some clothes."

"Great."

"Do we know where we're going yet?" Maria was about to say no, when Danny came down the stairs and into the hallway.

"The place we went when we were on the run from Johnson, you know, the one with the Terrorbirds?" Maria looked at him blankly. "Of course, you weren't there then. Well, someone else will just have to drive."

"Hang on; if you've already been there, then surely Sarah already knows where it is?" Maria's logic was flawless, if a little unwelcome.

"Yes, which is why it's the last place she will expect us to go," Danny was already one step ahead. Becker, Jess, Lou, Abby and Connor all came downstairs at that point, and Danny outlined the plan.

"We split into four teams, two in each vehicle. Maria, we're going to need to borrow some cars, we can't use the ARC car or your Mazda. Everyone who knows where we're going will drive and we'll all go different ways and meet up there at five PM. If someone's not there by then, we will assume that something went horribly wrong and that you've been captured or something, so we won't come looking for you. So whatever you do, don't break down. The time now is half three, so that should give us plenty of time. Any questions? No? Good. Let's go!"

Seb led the way out the back and into the garage, where rows and rows of cars were under lined up under sheets. He pulled tarpaulins off a Ford Focus, Renault Citroen, Honda Civic and thought for a moment about getting into his customized pickup truck, before deciding he didn't want it getting shot at. Instead he revealed a Peugeot 207, which looked like it hadn't even seen a car wash for years.

"Remind me, WHY do you have so many cars?" Connor asked, staring around the garage. There had to be at least twenty in there.

"Father Dearest had a rather extravagant taste. He had this funny little habit of not being seen in the same place with the same car. So, you know, he had a Sainsbury's Car, an ASDA Car, a TESCOs Car, a Going for A Random Drive Car... You get the picture." Maria slid into the Ford, and Danny got the idea that she didn't think very highly of her father. He was about to ask why but stopped himself; she probably wouldn't want to discuss it, especially not now. He got behind the wheel of the Ford and started up the engine, waiting for the doors to open before driving out of the garage with a lot of tire squeal and smoke. He caught the look that Maria shot him from the passenger seat and grinned.

"Sorry, I wasn't listening, what was that?" Wilder grinned over at Sarah from the other side of the car. He leaned against the bonnet and squinted through the infer-red binoculars at the Victorian mansion through the trees. He had thought this was only a private museum, and had been genuinely surprised to learn that the Holland family actually lived here. He remembered Maria Holland from his younger days. He'd heard all the stories of the teenager who shot up through Medical School and joined the military academy aged seventeen, and then gone on to be the most successful military doctor in... Well, ever, really. She had guided a friend of hers, Lou Walker, along the same path and they had been front line doctors for something like a year before getting sacked. Actually, no one was sure if they had been sacked or had actually quit, but that's what the official records said. Now they both lived in the Holland's country home, along with Maria's brother and his wife and kids. Wilder chuckled gleefully to himself. They could easily take hostages if necessary. He was vaguely aware of Sarah explaining their plan for the umpteenth time and tuned in to Radio Reality, catching the last sentence.

"...And then if they are actually in there, we lock them in the transport van and get them back to the ARC, where they can sit and be all out of the way."

"And if they're not in there? What then, Genius?" Sarah shot him the fifth glare in the last ten minutes.

"Then they'll have figured out that we're onto them and escaped, but they can't have gone far."

"So you're assuming that the guy who supplied you with this technology won't know that we're using it?"

"I already said that i don't expect them to be there. It would have been a lot easier if you hadn't shut them out of the system. That was probably a bit of a giveaway. So the guy who supplied me with this technology undoubtedly does know that we're onto them, it's simply a matter of whether or not he told his sister, who works for the government, that he deals in black market computer technology." Sarah finished her speech with a smug smile in Wilder's direction. He returned the expression perfectly, wiping it of Sarah's face. She was starting to wonder why she had teamed up with a complete madman. She could easily have accomplished this by herself.

"So then," Wilder said, far too loudly for Sarah's liking, "Why are we still sitting here? Let's go!" He pulled a loaded pistol out of his pocket and almost skipped up to the front door. Sarah shook her head and followed at a slightly more dignified pace.

Laura stepped through the front door, home early due to simple lack of anything happening at work, and was immediately struck by how quiet it was. It hadn't been this quiet when she got home in two weeks, and her first assumption was that Maria and her colleagues had finally left. She dropped her handbag in the kitchen and made her way upstairs to congratulate her husband upon finding some means to get rid of them. Not that their being there had been a nuisance, she just didn't like people she didn't know living in her house. Ok, it wasn't actually her house, it was Maria's, but she spent more time in it than Maria did. She knocked on the door of Seb's study, pushing it open when she received no reply. The computers at the far end were shut down; a feat that never occurred, besides when Seb was planning on leaving for long periods of time. Which meant that Seb had gone with Maria. Rolling her eyes at Sebastian's lack of communication, she made her way back down the stairs out of the attic towards Natalie's room, curious at the absence of loud pop music that usually could be heard on the ground floor. She stuck her head around the door, to find no Natalie either. Panic rose up as she realised that neither Seb nor Natalie were in the house, and practically ran downstairs. She marched into the games room and relief washed over her; at least one of her family members was still around.

"George, i don't suppose you know where your sister and father have run off to, do you?" She asked casually.

"Dad went with Maria and her crew, and i have no idea of the specifics but he said not to worry about him. Natalie, on the other hand, well, i heard her Moped engine about half an hour ago, so i am assuming that she went off with them too. She, I would worry about, seeing as both Dad and Maria forbade her from going." George said all this without looking up from the TV and the HALO Reach level he was playing, and eventually paused it when he heard no response from his mother. She stood in the doorway frowning, clearly worrying herself silly over Natalie.

"Seriously, Mum, she'll be fine. Maria won't let anything happen to her, or Dad, so leave it, ok?" George shrugged, and Laura hoped that the smile she gave him looked genuine. He smiled back and turned back to the TV, completely unaware of the gravity of the situation. Laura's smile dropped. She would certainly not 'Leave it.'

The chime of the doorbell brought her out of her fantasy of how the argument would go if Maria let anything happen to her daughter, and she opened it to find a man in his fifties and a stony-faced brunette woman on the doorstep.

"Good afternoon Mrs Holland," The man said in a voice that sounded far too childish for someone of his age.

"Umm... Hello..." Laura said hesitantly. "How do you know my name?" The man beamed at her the way George used to do when he was younger.

"We work for the government, Mrs Holland; we know a lot of stuff. We need to talk to your husband, if he's at home." Laura was seriously freaked by this point.

"No, he isn't, and I don't know where he has gone, so if you don't mind, I'd like you to leave. Now, please." Her tone was polite but firm and the man's grin faltered and dropped. He clearly hadn't been expecting the conversation to go in that direction. The Brunette woman glowered at him and stepped forward, pushing her partner down the porch steps as she did so. She smiled at Laura.

"My name is Dr. Page," she said. Laura recognised that name... She just didn't know where from. "We understand your husband's sister was here over the last few weeks with a group of people who probably didn't tell you much about where they came from and what they wanted? We need to know everything you do know about their whereabouts, and we need to know it now." Dr Page sounded like she had just taken speech lessons from the guy with the moustache from the first Transformers movie. Laura realised where she had heard that name before; she was one of the people Maria had said had taken over the ARC. Page was wrong about one thing: She knew everything about the ARC, the anomalies and, most of all, about Page herself. She assumed that the crazy man was Wilder, the one who had apparently killed one of the team, and she wasn't going to tell them anything, not if it put Seb and Natalie in danger. She squared her shoulders.

"I'm afraid i don't know what you're talking about," She announced. "My husband is on one of his business trips, and seeing as his line of work isn't exactly, shall we say, favourable; i don't know where he is,"

"Do you know what your husband does, Mrs Holland?" Page asked

"Yes, actually, I do."

"Then you know that, as Government agents, we have the power to arrest your husband for the production and sale of illegal computer technology?" Page stared Laura straight in the face. Laura returned her gaze with unerring confidence.

"Well, shall we say that if you did that, wouldn't the court be just as intrigued to know about how you managed to find my husband." Page's calm and secure expression was rapidly replaced with one of surprise. "I know all about my husband, my sister in law, and especially you, and i know that you managed to track them down here using one of his pieces of 'illegal computer technology.' Now, i really don't like being threatened in my own home, so i think it would be better for everyone, but mostly you, if you left now." Page nodded curtly and marched back down the porch stairs, Laura's words ringing in her ears. Laura sighed and closed the door. Leaning back against it, she vowed to give Maria a piece of her mind when she came home. The sound of a gunshot brought her back to the present and she hurried into the games room, panic arising once more. She found Wilder standing over George's limp form, grinning like the devil as he slung her son over his shoulder. Laura was forced to dive behind the sofa as Wilder fired off another shot at her, and by the time she reappeared, Wilder and George had vanished.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9~Evasion**

"And of course, Danny couldn't have waited half an hour before announcing his master plan," Jess whined for the millionth time. Abby rolled her eyes in resigned patience.

"We'd still be stuck in it half an hour later, Jess," she said, tapping the steering wheel. They had been sitting in a typical London 4pm traffic jam since they had hit the main roads an hour ago, and so far they had moved about a mile. If that. On the plus side, being stuck in traffic was a sure enough way of preventing getting shot at. Jess sighed again, and Abby was about to tell her to shut up, when the lights went green and she hit the gas, probably breaking the car's nought-to-sixty record by about two seconds. A few clever manoeuvres and dangerous driving tricks later, they were off the motorway and cruising with no regard to speed limits down the secondary roads that sliced through the centre of London. They reached the old mine testing zone in no time at all and drove straight through to the cottage in the centre. Deja Vu washed over Abby at the sight of the cottage, and memories of running away from Terrorbirds in a blue silk dress came flooding back. At Lester's request, it had been repaired since the last time they had been there, and he had been trying to get water and electricity supplies to it in case of an emergency, but Abby wasn't sure if he'd managed to before Wilder took over. It wasn't exactly highest on his priority list.

"So... how long are we going to be staying here again?" Jess piped up. Abby snorted.

"Just because you've gotten used to Maria's 5-star accommodation doesn't mean that everywhere we go will be the same," She started towards the cottage, shooting Jess a glare.

"Just for reference," Jess replied in a haughty tone, "Was there a shower here last time you came? Or a toilet, for that matter?" Abby's glower deepened, but she said nothing.

"Didn't think so," Jess muttered.

Becker and Lou had taken the scenic route; choosing to go around London rather than fight their way through it. They hadn't had time to fill each other in on what they had been up to since they parted in that field hospital in Afghanistan, and they were using the seemingly endless country roads to do just that.

"And then, she just got up, crossed the room in two seconds and hit him in the face," Lou grinned at the memory. "Then we left, went back home and sorted out all her dad's stuff. We realised that we were getting bored and started looking for jobs and here we are." There was a small silence. "One thing I'm curious about though," Lou frowned, "Why didn't you call? Once you'd got to London, I mean?" It was Becker's turn to frown this time. He kept his eyes on the road as he tried to come up with an answer. The truth was that he had been so wrapped up in the ARC that he hadn't even thought about it for two weeks, and by the time he had found the hospital's number and phoned up, he had been told that there had been another bomb strike and no one had survived it. He couldn't tell Lou that, though. He would almost certainly tell Maria, and Becker didn't want her to know that he had forgotten about her.

"I was busy," he said slowly, choosing his words. "I was signed up for this before I'd even left Afghanistan, and you remember how crazy it is around here when you first start." He glanced at Lou. His face was expressionless, and Becker couldn't tell if he believed him or not, so he shut up, letting the silence drag.

Five long and painfully silent minuteor76s later, Lou opened his mouth to say something else, and the air erupted in gunfire. Lou swore and grabbed the pistol he had stashed in the glove box, before rolling down the window and leaning out. Becker drove on the wrong side of the road so that Lou's head didn't get smashed like an Easter egg, and making it harder for the passenger of the car to hit him. One look in the rear-view mirror, however, told him that that was unnecessary, as the SUV with the heavy machine gun was actually what was chasing them. Becker cursed himself for not taking a busier road and stomped on the gas, forcing Lou to get back in the car. He clambered into the back seat instead, waiting until whoever was in the SUV to start using the HMG. They did just that. One of the ARC's security guards that Lou didn't recognise stood up behind the trigger and fired, sweeping the car with bullets. Becker only just ducked in time. Lou sprang up and fired at the SUV's tyres, bursting one and causing the vehicle to swerve out of control for a critical few seconds, during which Lou took careful aim and shot at the man on the roof. He pitched over backwards but stayed on the SUV, which braked suddenly and dropped behind. Lou didn't know where he had hit him, so wasn't sure if he was dead or not, but didn't dwell on it. Instead he slid back into the front seat next to Becker, who was still going at over a hundred miles per hour.

"Did you have to do that?" he asked with bitterness in his voice.

"Hey, i didn't kill him. Probably," Lou wasn't convinced by his own argument, and doubted that Becker was either. Judging by the speed at which the car was still going, Becker had known the security guard pretty well. He had never been very good with unnecessary deaths.

They sped on in silence until they reached the mine testing zone, to find Abby and Jess already there. Becker got out of the car as soon as it stopped and strode off up the small hill behind the cottage. Abby raised her eyebrows at Lou in a questioning expression.

"I may or may not have accidentally killed someone he probably knew quite well," he said awkwardly, getting out of the car. Abby groaned in despair. The last thing they needed now was Becker on one of his guilt trips.

"Shall I go and talk to him or..." Jess began

"No, let him simmer down by himself," Abby told her. "In ten minutes he'll come back as if nothing happened." Jess shrugged and she and Abby went back inside, leaving Lou standing by the car. He stared at the tree Becker had disappeared behind for a few seconds, thinking about going after him, when the sound of a car engine came behind him and Connor and Seb drove up, amazingly free of bullet holes. Lou put on a smile.

"Nice of you to finally join us," he said as Connor got out and went over to the boot. He opened it to reveal about three dozen Sainsbury's bags, and Lou noticed a few more on the back seat. He rolled his eyes. That was just so like Seb; to stock up on food in the middle of a getaway.

"Going to stand there all day, or are you going to help us shift all these inside?" Seb gave Lou a sarcastically authoritive look and passed him two carrier bags. With an exaggerated sigh, Lou took two more off the back seat and started taking them into the cottage.

Danny and Maria's journey had, so far, been relatively uneventful, besides a complete moron trying to overtake them in the middle of a busy roundabout. Other than that, however, pretty much nothing had happened. They were about five miles from the mine testing site when a pistol shot rang out and Danny's wing mirror shattered. If Maria had been a screaming kind of person, she would have screamed. Instead, she jumped through to the back seat and grabbed her own pistol from the seat pocket. She crouched down in the foot well and peeked out the back of the car, seeing Wilder hanging like a dog out of the window of another car that looked like it had about a million horsepower and a turbocharged engine. They didn't stand a chance of outrunning it; that was for certain. Wilder fired again, this time shattering the rear window, and Danny swerved, causing Maria to go crashing backwards. She recovered and took aim, her first shot going straight into one of Wilder's front tyres. Wilder nearly fell out of his window as the driver fought to regain control of the car, during which time Maria had already punctured the other tyre. Wilder fired off another shot that embedded itself in the number plate before sliding back into the car and shouting something at the driver, who turned off the road onto a country lane. Maria turned around, satisfied that they wouldn't be following them for a while at least, and returned Danny's grin. The grin faded as she heard the all too familiar sound of a moped behind them, and turned around again, just in time to see Natalie's purple motorbike swing round the corner.

"Danny, pull over," she instructed. Danny did just that, already figuring out who was on the bike, and decided to stay in the car whilst Maria faced her niece, who had pulled up next to them.

"What are you doing?" Maria demanded. She wasn't shouting, but was fairly certain that she wouldn't be staying like that for long.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Natalie answered, pulling off her helmet.

"It looks like you are following me. Please tell me I'm wrong."

"Nope, because that is exactly what I'm doing. You can't just leave me at home while i know that you, dad and Lou are careering off in the middle of nowhere, on the run from a mad person."

"Have you been rehearsing that on your way here?"

"Yes. And don't change the subject! I want to come with you!"

"And I'm telling you that you can't! Did you not hear what i told you back home, or are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Yes i heard you, and no i am not. I am perfectly capable of looking after myself! And anyway, mum called me just now,"

"So? She's probably worrying her pointed suede shoes off about you!"

"She said that George had been kidnapped!"

Maria stared Natalie straight in the face, eyes blazing. Her voice lowered to a whisper.

"What did you say?"

"Mum called and told me that a guy who acted like a six year old but looked about forty-five turned up and kidnapped George." Natalie met Maria's gaze. Maria swore and turned away. Natalie could hear her counting to ten under her breath.

"Get on your bike. Follow us." Nat's face lit up. "I'm not allowing you to come with us, i just can't afford to argue about it when your brother is being held hostage by a madman. You and your father can argue this out later." Maria slid back into the car as Natalie pulled on her helmet and Danny drove off, Nat in hot pursuit.

The unmistakable sound of a motorbike brought the team out of the cottage prepared for action as Maria, Danny and Natalie arrived. Confusion at her appearance was the most popular reaction, seconded by anger from Lou and Seb. Before he could confront her, however, Maria jumped out of her car.

"We have a problem," she announced.

"I can see that," Seb said darkly, frowning at Natalie.

"Ok, then we have two problems, but Natalie isn't the biggest one." Everyone's attention was now fixed on Maria. "Wilder has George," she said, straight to the point as usual. Seb swore so loudly that Lou had to cover his ears to stop himself getting deafened.

"Thanks for that cultured update on the situation Seb," Maria said sarcastically. "We still don't have a solution though," Everyone was silent for a few moments before Natalie spoke up.

"I have a suggestion, but you're not going to like it."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10~the Final Straw**

The plan was simple.

Maria, Danny Abby and Becker would show up at the ARC's front door, demanding George's return. Wilder would probably refuse, so Lou, Connor and Natalie would be sneaking in around the back to look for him. Seb would be with them to fake swipe cards if necessary, and then, one way or another, they would get George out of there. It was risky, and someone would almost certainly be left behind. But it was a risk they were all willing to take; they couldn't leave George alone in the ARC. Natalie's first plan had also included Jess, who looked like she was about to have a heart attack and insisted that she stay there.

As soon as Natalie had finished speaking, chaos ensued. Seb and Lou didn't want Natalie to have anything to do with this at all, and Becker muttered something about Civilian Involvement, but their arguments dried up when they realised that no one was arguing back. No one had a better idea, so everyone else decided to go with it. Seb changed tack and rounded on Maria.

"You are not going to allow her to do this," he said in a low, almost threatening voice. It wasn't a question. Maria thought for a few moments before answering him.

"I think it's a risk we have to take. We don't have any other plans, and besides, good luck trying to talk her out of it." Seb shot her a betrayed look before turning to Natalie. She didn't wait for him.

"I'm going, dad, and nothing you do or say will change my mind."

The silence that followed was uncomfortably long.

Once it was clear that no one was going to say anything else, Danny spoke up.

"So it's decided then. We split. I agree with Natalie's idea, only Becker you stay in the car." Becker nodded and started counting how many bullets he had left. He was clearly uncomfortable with what they were doing. Everyone was. "Well then, there's no point waiting," Danny announced with far too much forced enthusiasm. Everyone except Jess stood up and filed out of the cottage in silence, determination written on every face Jess wished them luck from the doorway before disappearing back inside. Lou gave Natalie a hard look. Maria knew that he would blame himself for anything that happened to her. Outside they found Seb doing something to Natalie's motorbike. Her first assumption was that he was disconnecting something important, so was fully prepared for another competition to see who could shout the loudest over it when Seb stood up, wiping his hands on his jeans.

"I've silenced your engine," he told her before she could start yelling at him. "So long as you don't go much faster than eighty you won't be heard from miles off." Natalie blinked, surprised that he was actually going along with this. Before she could thank him, he had already slipped into one car. Connor and Lou got in after him, and they sped off, closely followed by the other four in the other car that didn't have bullet holes in it already. Natalie gunned her engine and followed in hot pursuit.

Forty five minutes later they rounded a corner and the ARC came into view. They had managed to cross London without hitting gridlock traffic and it was just getting dark. That was good. They could use that to their advantage. Seb split off from the lead Danny was making, following Connor's directions to the fire door at the back that led into a side corridor and Natalie cruised after them. It would be amusing to see if she could still walk after riding that thing for forty five minutes straight. Danny continued up the main road that lead straight to the ARC's front entrance, keeping a look out for any extra security measures Wilder might have put in place. To his surprise, there wasn't even anyone stationed at the main security gate. They drove up, unchallenged, and rolled to a stop in front of a frowning security guard. Danny, Maria and Abby got out and were about to demand to see Wilder when the frowning guard spoke.

"Captain Wilder has been expecting you," he said in a monotone. The three exchanged a look before following him into the main building, leaving Becker alone in the car. They traversed down the ARC's main corridor and into the Operations Area, passing only two people. The first thing that they noticed about the familiar room was that the Anomaly Detector had been turned off. The second thing they noticed was Sarah, standing in the centre of the room, watching them with a stern expression. She didn't look like the same woman Danny had come to trust over the years. They stopped in front of her and neither of them spoke for a solid two minutes. At last, Danny broke the silence.

"Why?" was all he said. Sarah stared at him for a few more moments before replying,

"Because I need the mad fool to do something. Admittedly he is a little more uncontrollable than I anticipated, but I'm managing,"

"You need to do something? What?"

"The public deserve to know about the anomalies, the creatures and everything else we do here,"

"You do realise," Maria spoke up, "That if the public are told of all this, the general percentage probably won't be happy about it. Releasing this information will almost certainly cause protests, violent attacks and people will start to create their own anomaly detectors, and will kill the creatures before we manage to get to them. Now I haven't known you very long Sarah, but you don't look like the kind of person who wants to throw the whole country into turmoil," Maria raised her eyebrows, her general posture daring Sarah to tell her she was wrong. Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the load appearance of Wilder from behind them.

"Aah, Danny Quinn, Maria Holland, Abby Maitland, we meet again! How nice of you to come and pay us a visit, I do hope Sarah here was being nice to you," He spread his arms in welcome, causing Danny's paranoia to hit an all time high. "Seeing as I didn't send an invitation, I'm guessing there's a specific reason for your visit?" Wilder's facial expressions were ridiculously exaggerated, making him look like a very bad stage actor. Danny's expression hardened.

"We have come for George, and we're not leaving without him," he announced. Wilder looked confused.

"George? And who might this be?"

"The fifteen year old boy you kidnapped from my house not four hours ago," Maria said. Wilder grinned at her.

"What? No witty remark, no small menacing threat? Honestly Maria, I expected more from you," Maria felt like punching him, which didn't happen often. "I have your nephew, hidden away somewhere, but you can't have him back, I'm afraid. And as for not leaving without him, I don't intend on letting you leave at all," He grinned again and Abby heard the unmistakeable sound of a machine gun cocking. Several machine guns. She looked up to see about three dozen men lining the balcony, all training guns on them. "I suggest you don't try to leave or anything, my lads up there will probably make more pieces of you than a complex jigsaw puzzle. Have a nice day now," With that, Wilder trotted off back up the ramp and into Lester's office, where he proceeded to throw his legs over the desk and poke something with a pencil. Sarah turned on her heel and left, not even giving them a second glance. Abby sat down on the spinney chair in front of the Anomaly Detector.

"So now what?" she looked straight at Danny, willing him to come up with the answer to their predicament. At that moment, a gunshot rang off somewhere outside, and the sound of a motorbike engine echoed through the walls, fading away surprisingly quickly. That meant that Natalie had managed to get away, probably with George, seeing as she wasn't the sort of person to leave without him. Relief washed through all three, only to be quickly replaced by the sense of impending doom that had been creeping up on them for a while now. Just as Danny was starting to get bored again, a sound came from the row of soldiers above them.

"Psst," Danny looked straight up at where the noise had come from. IT was a soldier he recognised. Peterson. He was mouthing something down at the three captives. 'Go.' Peterson's eyes flickered towards Wilder, and Danny got the message. The ARC's security team was still on their side. He nodded at Peterson and nudged Abby and Maria, before indicating towards the door. They crept slowly towards the double doors at the far end of the Operations Area, silently praying that Wilder wouldn't look up. They were three feet away when he did just that. Shock, followed by anger flashed across his face, and he leapt up, nearly falling over his chair in his haste. Danny didn't want to wait around to find out what he was going to do next. He was already sprinting down the main corridor, the others in hot pursuit behind him. They rounded three corners before bursting out of the same door they had come in from, and immediately saw Becker getting out of the car very quickly. A shot ran out behind them, and Wilder screamed in rage. He fired off another one and Danny stumbled. Abby caught him before he hit the ground and she and Maria practically carried him to the car. Becker had caught up to them by this point and fired at wilder, his first shot missing but the second went into his leg and Wilder fell, rolling twice and dropping his gun before trying to stand up again. He couldn't, so screamed again as Maria and Abby lowered Danny onto the back seat.

"Abby, drive," Maria ordered, before getting in next to Danny to see what damage Wilder had done. Abby slid into the front and started the engine, already picking up speed as Becker got in the passenger. She floored it, speeding away from the arc in a mass of burning rubber and smoke. The smell of blood was already filling up the car.

Seb rolled to a stop by the fire escape Connor pointed out to him and waited for Natalie to so the same before getting out of the car. The four of them; Connor, Lou, Natalie and himself, crept over to the door and looked it over for a way in. Connor tried the Danny tactic; he took a small run-up and scissor kicked it in mid-air, silently thanking Becker for taking his time over getting better doors installed as he crashed onto the floor, grinning with success. Lou gave him a look. He had just made enough noise to announce their arrival to every single security guard in the entire building. Connor straightened up and they made their way in, finding no security doors along the side-corridor. Lou nodded to Seb, who reluctantly returned to the car. Having all four of them searching for George would attract too much attention. They had already discussed where George would most likely be, and decided to first try the interrogation room, and then the office rooms upstairs. They crept, silent as mice to the elevators at the end of the corridor, checking every doorway they passed. After a small mimed argument over whether or not to use the elevators, as their use would tell Wilder they were there, they decided against it, instead practically running down three flights of stairs. Connor didn't like this floor. It was always full of weird noises from the Menagerie. Lou pulled open the stairwell door and peeked round, falling flat on his face when he lost his balance after noticing the two men in suits standing, hands on hips, above him.

"What on Earth took you so long?" Burton demanded.

"I've been stuck in here with him for almost an entire twenty-four hours. I am about to seriously lose it," Lester said, the hint of humour in his eye that told Lou he was only joking.

"Well sorry," Lou said, standing up, "But in case you weren't aware, you're not the only ones. Connor, take them back to Seb. Tell him to come up with some way of contacting Whitehall," Connor nodded and led the two older men back upstairs, leaving Lou and Natalie alone in the echoing corridor.

"Let's find my brother and get out of here," Natalie decided, moving forwards ahead of Lou.

"You want me to go first?" Lou asked.

"No."

"You sure?"

"Lou, if I need your protection, I will ask for it."

"I'm just saying..."

"LOU! Shut..." Natalie was cut short by a quiet tapping on the door next to her right shoulder. The two of them turned and peered through the glass circle at the top of the door, straight at George's face. Natalie tried the door and, unsurprisingly, found it locked. Lou reached past her and typed his security code in, which he didn't actually expect to work, but tried anyway, just for the sake of it. To his surprise, the door swung open and George sprang out, hurling himself at Natalie.

"Am I glad to see you guys," he said clinging to Natalie in a tight hug. "I was going crazy in there,"

"Georgie, you've only been in there a few hours,"

"They don't keep Xboxes in prison cells, you know," George said, indignant. Natalie laughed. That was such a typical thing for her brother to say.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Lou led the way back around the corner and towards the stairwell, managing to get halfway there before his brain registered that all this had been far too easy. As soon as that thought flitted through his mind, a security guard rounded the corner ahead of them. All four of them froze. During that second, Lou judged the odds. All they had to do was get to the stairwell first. Then they could keep going down, find a new staircase and take the lifts back up. All or nothing.

Lou ran.

He sprinted flat-out for the stairwell, hoping to hell that Natalie and George had the common sense to follow him. He dived into the door which didn't open fast enough and flew off its hinges beneath his shoulder, which now had a few nice bruises. He heard Natalie and George's footsteps behind him as he practically jumped down the stairs, followed by the guard's voice at the top of the stairwell;

"Intruders in sub-level C!" Lou cursed. They were in trouble. The three of them burst out into a corridor about four levels down and sprinted down it, round three corners and towards the other set of elevators the other side of the ARC building. Hitting the switch with more force than necessary, Lou came to a stop and doubled over, panting. Natalie and George did the same, and before long, Lou found himself giggling. What was funny was that he, Natalie and George had just sprinted flat-out down about five corridors, had absolutely no plan as to what they were going to do next, were being chased by probably more than two dozen security guards who all undoubtedly had guns, and they were waiting for the elevator. The irony was almost unbearable. Before long, Natalie was laughing too, leaving George to stare at them, bemused. This only set Natalie going even more, and by the time the elevator chimed and the doors swung open, she could hardly keep herself upright. She and Lou fell into the cabin, followed by George who was now pretending he didn't know them. Lou pressed the button for Level 1 and the lift began the slow climb to ground level.

by the time they arrived, Natalie and Lou had calmed down and sobered up, still refusing to explain to George what had been so funny, and as the doors slowly crept open, Lou's inbuilt sense of paranoia slowly escalated until he was fully prepared to hit something at the slightest provocation. No one was on the other side of the doors, however, so Lou led them to the nearest fire exit and started looking around for guards as soon as they got outside. He knew that Seb was waiting just around the corner, so the three of them began to make their way across the loading bay and around the side of the huge building. Just as they reached the corner, a gunshot rang out behind them and a bulled bounced off the wall just above Lou's shoulder. They didn't look behind them to see how many they were up against. Instead they sprinted, flat out once again, towards Seb who had just noticed their arrival from the inside of the car. Natalie saw that, with Lester and Burton now in the back seat, they couldn't fit three more passengers in the car.

"George, on my bike, NOW!" she yelled, pulling the spare helmet out of the pocket at the back. George didn't argue. He wrapped his arm around Natalie's waist and she took off, gunning the engine straight to full speed. The silencer Seb had installed failed and the two of them raced out of the car park at a hundred and thirteen miles an hour. Seb started up the car and, now with Lou safely in the back, followed, if at a more sensible speed. Gunshots followed them all the way to the security gates.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11~Determined to Succeed**

Natalie and George arrived at the safe house in twenty minutes, seeing as they had been going at ninety miles an hour for most of it. They found Jess bored stiff and almost regretting her decision to stay behind, and she immediately busied herself by making dinner out of the supplies Seb and Connor had bought on the way in. Half an hour later, Seb, Lou, Connor, Lester and Burton arrived, much to Jess's delight, and she tipped the rest of the packet of pasta into the saucepan she was heating up. They all sat down to eat and discuss what to do next, and it came to their attention that Burton carried a secured phone around with him that was linked up to his offices at Prospero, with which he could bring all this to the attention of the Minister and have the British Army brought down on Wilder in less than a day. Lester glared at him, demanding why he hadn't thought to use it before, to which Burton replied that there was no point, seeing as they were two levels underground. The two men were evidently about to start yet another argument over which of them was more important, and, sensing this, Jess intervened with desert. George giggled into his Ribena at the looks Lester and Burton kept shooting each other. It wasn't until after dinner and Burton was about to make his phone call that Connor pointed out a very important fact:

"Uh, guys, has anyone else noticed that Danny and his lot haven't come back yet?" Everyone stopped. It had been nearly two hours since everyone else had arrived, and there was still no sign of them. And, to be honest, no one else had noticed until now. Seb broke the silence by swearing. Loudly. Lou and Natalie shared a look.

"My guess is that they were captured," Lou decided, not liking the idea himself. Natalie nodded in agreement. It did seem the most likely outcome.

"So now what?" Jess asked.

"Now, we go and get them," Lester said, without hesitation.

"No," Burton voiced, "There's still the possibility that they are coming, so going to look for them would be a waste of time. I say we get some rest and, if they're still not back by morning, go to find them then." This suggestion seemed to be the best, although no one was sure if they could get any sleep now that they knew something bad had to have happened. On the other hand, it was nearly midnight. George yawned loudly and moved past Burton and into the living area of the cottage, where he plonked himself on the sofa and went to sleep in about ten seconds. Natalie would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so heavy.

About a minute later, the sound of a car engine came into earshot and headlights glared into the windows. Before the engine had even cut out, Maria sprinted inside and went straight to the cupboards above the sink. She grabbed a small packet and ran out again, only to reappear ten seconds later. She was followed by Becker, who, much to everyone's dismay, was carrying a very pale Danny. He put him down on the kitchen table and Maria set about unwinding the bandage she had just found in the cupboard. Lou silently handed her some absorbent padding and she rolled up Danny's blood-stained shirt, revealing a bullet wound the size of a tennis ball. Nobody spoke or even moved as she secured the padding with the bandage and pressed down gently on it, trying to stop the bleeding. For about ten minutes, the only sound in the room was Danny's erratic breathing. Then, after what seemed like forever, Danny coughed, making about three people jump, and a grin spread across Maria's face. She unwound the bandage and replaced it and the padding just as Danny's eyes flickered open and he squinted around the room, trying to figure out where he was.

"I feel like I've been run over by a lawnmower," he announced. Everyone around the table laughed, albeit somewhat shakily. Danny was ok. Maria went over to the sink and washed her hands, before sitting down heavily in a chair, still grinning broadly.

"Do I want to know what happened, or is that information something that is going to endanger my already teetering sanity?" Lester appeared in the doorway.

"I got shot," Danny declared, giving Lester reason to glower once again.

"I meant specifically, Danny, not stating the obvious,"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Danny tried to sit up only to be pushed back down again by Maria. He immediately propped himself up on his elbows instead, winning one of Maria's "fine but it's your life" looks.

"Specifically, we turned up, had a nice little chat with Sarah regarding her own plans to make the ARC public knowledge, were refused the presence of young George, as expected, and then got trapped in the Operations Room by the fine men you employ to keep us safe around there. Thankfully they were on our side and let us go, earning me this lovely parting gift from Wilder on the way out. That's pretty much what happened." Lester nodded thoughtfully, as did Burton, which was rather amusing, actually, considering how much the two of them disliked each other.

"Well at least now we know what they are trying to do," Burton mused.

"No, we know what Sarah is trying to do," Becker pointed out. "We still have no idea what Wilder wants."

"Actually, we do," Lester announced, much to everyone's surprise. "Johnson was trying to create Predators and have her own little army of them, which, we think, is what Helen Cutter was trying to prevent, she just thought it was us that was doing it. If Wilder's aim is to continue her work, then that's what he's doing."

"I still fail to see how taking over the ARC and then sitting around doing nothing is going to accomplish that," Maria said.

"This leads us to assume that he is actually doing something, he's just doing it quietly so as not to alert us to what he's doing." Burton said. He and Lester had evidently had a long time to talk about this.

"I think," Natalie said slowly, getting everyone's attention, "that you should make your magic phone call, get Wilder arrested and us back in the ARC, and then if there are any speed bumps along the way over Wilder's scheming, then we deal with them as and when. Which seems to be what you guys are good at," It was a good idea. The only major pitfall was that Natalie had used the word 'We' in the whole thing.

"Who, may i ask, is 'We'?" Seb demanded. Natalie gave him a blank look, forcing him to elaborate. She knew exactly what he meant, she just wanted him to say it out loud.

"You are going straight home with your brother as soon as you can," Seb said, leaving, he thought, no room for further discussion.

"For the umpteenth time, Dad, I can do what I want, whether you are happy with it or not. I'm eighteen, legally an adult, therefore able to make my own decisions,"

"No. You are NOT getting any more involved with this. Ok?"

"No, not ok. I want to at least see this through to the end, and then, I dunno, start working at the ARC. As in properly," Natalie's voice trailed off slightly towards the end of her speech as she saw the look on Seb's face. It was the same face Maria's dad had had on when she had announced she was leaving home to go to Military medical school, and everyone knew how THAT had turned out. Seb whirled around and confronted Lester, looking for something to use against Natalie's plan. Lester only shrugged.

"She's proven herself to be useful and can hold out in tough situations. If she asks nicely then i have no problem with it," he said, the biggest look of innocence on his face anyone had ever seen. That wasn't the response Seb had been wanting. He turned back to Natalie.

"You're not going through with this," he said, flatly.

"Give me one good reason."

"Because...Because i said so!" Seb yelled, unable to come up with another reason. Natalie looked him straight in the face, giving him a no-nonsense stare that she had copied perfectly from Maria's collection of expressions.

"That isn't a good enough reason anymore," she said. She pushed past her father and through the cottage door with more force than was necessary, leaving a heavy silence inside. Maria stood up.

"Well that was nicely handled," she directed at Seb before following her niece outside, trying to catch up with her before she went too far away. Seb tried to follow, only to be blocked by Becker, who hadn't moved from the doorway the entire time.

"I think you should just let her go," he said. Seb looked tempted to shoot him with his own pistol.

"Don't you dare tell me what i can and can't do regarding my own daughter," he said quietly. Becker's only movement was raising an eyebrow and putting his free hand on his gun, to stop Seb using it on him rather than anything else. Seb got another message.

"What? Are you going to shoot me now?" Before Becker could reply, a voice rang out from the other side of the room.

"Seb!" Lou barked, his eyes blazing. "Calm down." Seb turned, beyond ready to hit something, and locked gazes with Lou. For a minute, no one breathed. After a painful silence, Seb shook his head and traipsed through the cottage. The back door slammed shut.

"Well that was...Fun..." Connor voiced, in attempt to lighten the mood slightly. He shrugged at the glares people shot him, and attempted to hit Abby back but missed. Burton pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning on.

"Now that all the drama's over, I'm going to make a call. I suggest we all try to get as much rest as we can," he left the room, delving into one of his pockets. Everyone else made noises of agreement before finding somewhere to settle down for the night; Abby, Jess and Connor went through to the living room to occupy the chairs in there, Lou made himself comfortable in the chair he had previously been sitting in, Danny had already fallen asleep on the table and Becker plonked himself down in the chair by the window. He planned on staying awake until Maria and Natalie came back in, just to know where they were, but never got that far. They crept inside almost half an hour later, making sure as not to disturb anyone.

The following morning, once amends had been made and Seb had left to get more supplies, Burton announced the results of his phone call.

"The Minister expects us at the ARC at ten this morning. He, somehow, has arranged a take-over of the ARC. My plan is that Lester, Jess and I go to the ARC, make sure everything goes according to plan, and then we'll come get the rest of you when it's clear. Danny, you're coming with us too. We can get you to a proper hospital." He dodged the wounded look Maria shot him as a joke and looked around, judging responses. No one else had a different plan, so they agreed to just go with it. "In that case, we'd better be going," he strode out of the cottage, glad to be doing something rather than sitting around watching Maria's family shout at each other, followed by Lester and Jess, who was supporting Danny. Once the sound of the car they had taken could no longer be heard, Maria leaned back in her chair.

"Well, that is quite enough excitement for now, thank you very much," she declared, closing her eyes.

"It can't be over that easily," George said quietly. Maria opened one eye and raised the same eyebrow. "I mean, think about it, in every video game, even the really bad ones, the characters always get to a certain point, usually about three-quarters of the way through, and everyone thinks it's going to be fine blah blah blah, and then something really, really bad happens. It does that in movies too." Natalie rolled her eyes.

"The key difference, Georgie, is that this isn't a video game or a movie," she said in the sort of voice most people use when talking to a four-year-old.

"And anyway, it doesn't do that in Halo: Reach," Maria announced, both eyes closed once again.

"How do you know what happens in Halo?" George asked, surprised. Maria only grinned.

"Actually," Connor spoke up, "he's got a point. Not about the video game thing but think about it. Wilder has done all this to stop us from being in the ARC, something tells me it's going to take more than Burton's magic phone to stop him."

"I think you're all being overly pessimistic," Lou decided. "I for one am not going to get all worked up over something that hasn't happened yet and probably won't anyway."

"Amen to that," Maria said, still grinning. "Ryan, for the umpteenth time, they don't know we're here," she shouted over at Becker, who was pacing between all the windows in the cottage, and had been since he'd woken up that morning.

"So?"

"So stop prowling. Seriously, you remind me of that lizard," Maria grinned again as Lou collapsed in giggles at the other side of the table. Abby waited until he'd calmed down a bit before asking the most obvious question:

"What lizard?"

"The lizard that..." Maria was interrupted by a large explosion coming from round the back of the cottage. She was out of her chair in a flash and ran through to the back room. She held up a finger for silence as the others followed after her, listening for any sounds of either another explosion or the cause of it. All she heard was the first tentative bird beginning to chirp in the tree next to the outbuilding.

"Maybe it was just an animal or something," Abby offered. Maria threw her a 'don't be ridiculous' look. "Well there is a minefield out there," Abby said in her defence.

"I thought you said that Lester had had that cleared up," Maria said, making her way to the window that overlooked the field.

"Maybe they missed one," Connor suggested.

"Somehow," Maria said cautiously, "I don't think that small critters carry steel flight cases with them," she pointed out the window to the remains of what clearly had once been just that.

"And you said they had no idea we were here," Becker gave Maria an accusing look. Before she could shrug and come back at him with some witty remark about how she's not THAT much of a genius, the air around them opened up with gunfire. Lou flinched as something whistled past his ear and went through the wall behind him, leaving a splintered hole in the side of the cottage.

"Run?" he asked, looking for confirmation.

"Run," Maria confirmed. "Everyone through the outbuilding and into the trees," she yelled above the noise. In reality, she had no idea where the gunfire was coming from, and actually, by taking everyone into the trees was probably as likely of a suicide mission as staying inside was, but she could see no other choice. Abby and Connor went first, followed by George and Natalie. Maria went next, with Lou and Becker bringing up the rear. Lou had left his pistol in the car the day before, so Becker was the only one with any means of fighting back. At first, it looked as if no one was following them, until the seemingly impossible happened. An anomaly sprang open just next to the cottage and Wilder stepped out of it, raised a gun at the retreating group and fired before disappearing again. The anomaly disappeared with him. Time itself seemed to slow down for Maria at that point. She saw Wilder fire and then vanish, and saw Lou drop. Natalie screamed his name and started to sprint towards him, and just as she passed Maria, another anomaly opened, halfway between the cottage and where they were standing. Maria slammed into Natalie, knocking them both to the floor as another bulled whizzed past where their heads had just been. Natalie was up first, but Maria grabbed her sleeve.

"Get off me!" The shout was unnaturally loud in Maria's ear as she grabbed Natalie's arm properly and, catching the urgent look Becker shot at her, stared her in the face. They were too far away from Lou to help him without getting shot themselves, and there was a good chance he was already dead.

"Nat, if we go back we will get killed. We have to keep going," Natalie rounded on Maria, tears streaming down her face.

"We can't leave him there!" she cried.

"We have to. Damn it Natalie, we have to go. Now!" Natalie was about to shove Maria away and try and help Lou anyway, scream at her for not even trying to help, accuse her of not caring, anything to be able to get to Lou. But the look in her aunt's eyes told her that telling her all this was just as painful as it was for her to hear it. Maria and Lou had been friends for... Well, forever, and the force of what Maria was telling her finally sunk in; they couldn't help Lou. As much as either of them wanted to, they couldn't. All of this took place within the space of about five seconds, and, with one last glance at Lou lying in the grass, they both sprinted for the tree line, Becker right behind them firing shots at the anomalies that opened alarmingly quickly at various places in the field. Once they reached Abby and Connor in the trees they kept on running, trying to get as far away from the cottage as they could. Only once the sounds of gunfire were a long way behind them and Becker had stopped returning shots did they stop, more because they couldn't run any further than anything else. Natalie threw her arms around Maria and cried, loud sobs making her entire body shake. Abby, Connor, George and Becker watched in silence as tears ran down Maria's face too. The sight of Maria crying unnerved Becker. He had only seen her cry once before, but not for very long. This was different. It was as if part of Maria, the part that laughed in the face of danger and refused to be intimidated by anything at all, had died with Lou in the field outside the cottage. Almost five minutes later, when Natalie had stopped crying, the two of them joined the rest of the group. Maria stared at each of them in turn, knowing that she would need to rely on them for what she was about to suggest.

"This ends," She announced, her voice reflecting the anger and determination that blazed in her emerald green eyes. "Now."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12~Life, the Universe and Everything**

The summer sunshine pierced through the gap in the trees, giving the forest real colours once again. The small critters began to scamper across the dirt, on their way to whatever it was that small forest critters did in the mornings. Most of them stayed well away from the five sleeping figures on the ground below the tree that Maria was sitting in, although some clearly were more curious than others. The peacefulness of the scene below her did nothing at all to change Maria's mood.

She had known Lou Walker for his whole life, and his mother had been a frequent visitor in their house before then. Maria's mother, Angela, had been an art teacher at one of the many universities in London, and Crystal Walker had been her favourite student. 8-year-old Maria had often watched the two of them sitting out on the lawn drawing something; a cloud, the trees, each other, anything. Then, when Maria was nine, Crystal had come home with Angela as usual on a Friday afternoon, but instead of staying for dinner and then going home again, Crystal stayed overnight. This had happened occasionally, so Maria had paid little attention to it, but then she realised the following Monday morning that Crystal was still around. So, after school, she confronted Angela about it. Her mother had, instead of just waving a hand and giving a vague answer about an art project as Maria was expecting, sat her down and told her that Crystal was pregnant, and she had one of those fathers who wouldn't be happy with his only daughter coming home and announcing this at the age of nineteen, so Angela had called Crystal's dad, told him that she was taking Crystal on an educational trip for a year, and had let Crystal stay until she was able to look after her baby herself. Maria had, at the time, been totally OK with this. Three months after Maria's tenth birthday, Lewis Walker was born. The next five or so years were a blur of studying and exams for Maria, so she didn't really pay much attention to Lou or Crystal whenever they came over, until she opened the door to a teary-eyed, 5-year-old Lou one evening. He had said a few things about his mother lying on the sofa before bursting into tears again, and, seeing as her parents had gone out to dinner and Seb had been in Nottingham with Laura and his new-born daughter for the last four years straight, Maria took it upon herself to allow the child to lead her the three miles from her house to his flat to see what the problem was. She was convinced that Crystal was just asleep and that Lou was overreacting, but she was wrong.

As it turned out, although neither Maria nor Lou had actually been told this until Maria had called her parents in hysterics and they were both curled up in those uncomfortable plastic chairs that lined hospital waiting rooms, Crystal had had a heart attack. There had been nothing wrong with her, her heart had just given out, and no one had ever figured out why. Lou had cried for days. Maria somehow felt like it was her responsibility to make sure he got through it. She knew that he didn't really understand what had happened, all he really had to go on at aged five was that his mother wasn't there anymore, and the reasons why were beyond him.

Ever since that night Maria had been there for Lou. Everything that his mother would have done; first day of school, tying shoelaces, riding a bike; she did instead. She helped him through everything, and when Angela had died in a car accident when Maria was sixteen Lou, even though he had only been six years old, had done his best to comfort her too. They had always been there for each other.

And now he was gone.

Maria blinked, fresh tears streaming down her face as she remembered. She wiped them away, angry at herself; she should be keeping watch for Wilder, not wallowing in her own self-pity. She climbed down a few branches before jumping the rest of the way out of her tree and began to pace slowly around the makeshift campsite, refusing to let her thoughts stray from the task at hand. She needed to wake up the others; they needed to keep moving and get to the ARC before Wilder found them. She shook Natalie and George before pouring the last dregs of a water bottle over the smouldering fire. Their half-asleep muttering roused Becker, who woke Connor and Abby before yawning loudly and stretching.

"So what now?" he asked Maria.

"Now we get to the ARC," she said simply.

"Uhh, slight problem with that," Connor said, rubbing his face, "We have no idea where it is," Maria straightened up.

"I know, but we can't stay here for long, Wilder will probably track us here before the ARC does, and i don't want to be around when that happens."

"We could go back to the cottage and wait for them there." Natalie offered. "I mean, that's probably the last place he would expect us to go," Maria considered this for a moment. Natalie had a point, Wilder would probably not come back for them there, and it was unlikely that he was using it as a base himself. She looked at Becker, her face asking for his opinion. He shrugged. They had nothing to lose and a lot to gain.

"Fine. The cottage it is then," Maria made the call. Everyone began hurrying around the camp, packing things up. Abby began scouting around the immediate area, trying to find the direction they'd been coming from the day before. After about three minutes, she set off, crouching down and following a trail that no one else would have figured was made by their running. They walked for a minute or two more before Abby was confident that they were going in the right direction, and their pace increased slightly, Maria, Abby and Natalie in front, Becker behind them, his dark eyes watchful for anything that could take them by surprise, and then Connor and George, who had launched into an animated conversation about the differences between Halo and Call of Duty. After half an hour, Becker joined in, much to everyone else's surprise and amusement.

Nearly three hours later, when they had covered as many miles and George was just about to complain that he was hungry, they reached the tree line and the cottage came into view. Maria held up a hand and everyone stopped. They were far enough in the tree line to see the cottage without being seen. Maria crept forwards, keeping low to the ground, and made a break for a clump of bushes about ten metres ahead of the edge of the forest. Once there, she examined the cottage for any movement from the inside and around the outbuildings. Five minutes and not even a shadow movement later, she motioned to the others, who joined her at the bushes. Maria stood up and crept ahead of them to the cottage wall.

The unmistakeable sounds of about six guns cocking made her freeze and slowly raise her hands above her head. Looking up, she saw six figures silhouetted against the sunlight in front of her, all pointing standard issue ARC weaponry at her head. She could vaguely make out another, larger group heading towards the rest of the team in her peripheral vision, and she nearly fell over at the wave of relief that washed over her when she realised that these were ARC security guards. They were safe. For how long, she wasn't sure, but at that moment she didn't care. They were safe for now. Natalie and George could go home and recuperate, and she could relax for the first time in something like a month.

Maria seemed to step out of herself and watch as the guards around her lowered their weapons and directed her over to three parked cars, where an ARC medic who was significantly less qualified than she was checked her over and told her to eat a Go Ahead energy bar. She didn't, knowing that it wouldn't make any difference. She was then vaguely aware of being told that Natalie and George would be taken in their own vehicle back home, whilst she, Connor, Abby and Becker would be debriefed at the ARC and then given a few days off to recover. She was thankful that no one asked her what had happened to Lou. She managed to get in the car without any control over her body whatsoever, and slid all the way over to the far end of the back seat. Abby got in next to her, followed by Connor, and then Becker who had stolen front seat privileges. She didn't even realise she had fallen asleep until the dreams came.

Maria looked up from Wilder's mocking face and looked around the ARC's operations area. She remembered the day she and Lou had first arrived; after a short and rather sarcastic conversation with Lester they had been sent straight to the aid of the team, whereupon she had been re-united with Ryan Becker. She had thought at the time that her life was going to be easy-going and pretty darn perfect after that. She almost laughed at her naivety. Since then, she had been chased down a motorway by a madman with a pistol, hidden out in a cottage in the middle of nowhere for a few days, fought bloodthirsty future predators and romped across rooftops in a bright orange boiler suit. As strange and adventurous as this was, the fact that she was standing in front of Wilder with a pistol in her hand topped the scale. She had hoped she would never find herself in this situation. A hollow, senseless feeling began to form in the pit of her stomach. Three people had died because of this man. Lou, her best friend and practically her younger brother. Matt, whom she hadn't known very well, but whose death had still hit her like a lead weight. And Ryan. Her Ryan. The only man who she thought would ever understand her completely, the only person she would ever open herself up to without reservation. Wilder had destroyed her very soul when he had shot him, and the fact that she couldn't do anything about it didn't help. And now he was going to pay for it. Maria had never shot anyone before. She had never really used a gun, except in Military training. She hated the things. She had always wanted to save people's lives, not end them. Now, however, as she looked into Wilder's eyes she had an overwhelming urge to pull the trigger and wipe that irritating smirk off his face. It was slightly terrifying.

"You know," Wilder spoke up. He never stopped talking. It was beginning to get on Maria's nerves. "You had a reputation back home once. The Miracle Worker, the only person in the military who would never take a life, under any circumstances." his grin broadened. "You won't kill me, Maria Holland, it goes against the very fibre of your being." Maria tilted her head to one side, regarding him, as if to see if there was any truth in what he said. She decided there wasn't.

"I think you need to change your perspective slightly." she told him. He started to laugh. Quietly at first, before building to a crescendo that would have sent shivers down Maria's spine if she had been capable of feeling anything at that moment. Wilder went silent as she put the gun to his forehead, his face turning serious for the first time Maria had seen him. That was a shame. She had wanted him to die laughing.

The pistol made a surprisingly loud bang as she pulled the trigger, sending the only bullet left in the gun through Wilder's face and out the back of his head. Maria felt nothing, emotionally or physically, as his body slumped and fell backwards onto the polished floor.

Maria woke with a jump and quickly wiped the tear off her face before anyone else in the car noticed. She was too late, however. Out of chance she glanced into the rear-view mirror and met Becker's gaze from the front seat. She held it for a few seconds before turning away and concentrating on the passing scenery instead. Thankfully, Connor and Abby remained oblivious , but Maria felt Becker's eyes on her for the remainder of the journey back to the ARC. Her dream had disturbed her beyond description; she just hoped that she could cover it up long enough to get through Lester's debriefing and to her office before Becker decided to confront her about it.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13~Handle With Care**

Maria sat in Lester's office looking like she was paying attention, but actually not hearing a word. She caught onto the fact that Wilder had disappeared by the time the army arrived, and no one knew where he had gone. He had even uploaded some kind of Spider-Bot virus into the Anomaly Detector, leaving them blind to his whereabouts until Connor could find a way to destroy it. That was pretty much all that had sunk in. Inside, Maria was scared to death. Not about the fact that Becker was going to die, although that did terrify her, but what hit the nail on the head was that she had seen herself shoot wilder. She couldn't cope with that. A long time ago, when Lou's mother had died, in fact, she had promised herself that from then on she would do everything she could to save people and would never, ever, take a life, except under the most extreme circumstances; if it was them or her. But she had watched her own hand pull the trigger that had sent a bullet through Wilder's forehead while he was kneeling on the ground in front of her, completely defenceless. She was terrified that she would become that person; that eventually killing people would matter so little to her that she wouldn't try so hard to save them instead. The thought turned her blood to ice every time she even considered it.

She felt Becker's penetrating gaze on her throughout the entire debriefing but refused to look in his direction, just in case her face gave anything away. She didn't want to burden him with this; he would soon have enough on his plate re-organising the ARC's security to worry about her too. As soon as Lester dismissed the team, Maria headed straight for her office. She wanted to be alone, and she knew that she would be swamped by her family if she went home, so decided that pretending to immerse herself in medical reports was the best way to ensure not being spoken to for the next few hours. Unfortunately; or maybe fortunately, Maria was never sure; that didn't happen.

About half an hour later, when she had gotten fed up with slowly spiralling downwards into depression and actually started reading the medical reports she had been staring at, Maria found herself in the fridge. It was in there, behind a stack of ice packs, where she saw them. The seven bottles of Budweiser that Lou had always kept on the third shelf, at the back and behind a few things so that she didn't see them. He would drink one a day and then replenish them on Monday morning before work. Maria had always despised this habit, but never did anything to stop him. Maria wasn't sure why; whether it was just seeing them there or the fact that she knew they would never be drunk; but at that moment it really hit her. Lou was never coming back. Not ever. Until now, it had just been a background feeling; there had always been things more important that she had to do, so hadn't thought about it properly. Her best friend was dead. He would never be around to make some sarcastic joke about members of her family, or fire off some passing Star Trek reference that only the two of them would understand. Maria sat back against her desk and stared at the open fridge, not seeing anything as the tears began to fall freely down her face. She didn't even try to stop them. Closing the fridge with her foot, she closed her eyes and allowed her head to fill up with playback images of everything she could remember her and Lou doing together. She didn't know how long she sat there. She lost all track of time until she felt someone put their hands around her waist, and she opened her eyes to see Becker standing in front of her, a million different emotions written in his eyes. He pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace that only made Maria cry harder.

"I'm here," he whispered. "I'm always here." Maria buried her face in the crook of his neck and hugged him back. She wanted to be able to stand there forever in his arms, letting him protect her from the world and all the horrors it contained. But that was just another wish that was never going to come true. He leaned backwards slightly so that he could see her face and wiped the tears from beneath her eyes, before kissing her. In that one kiss he told her everything he didn't know how to say with words. That he would never leave her. No matter the consequences, they would never be apart again. That she didn't have to hide anything from him, and, more importantly than anything else, that he loved her. Immeasurably and unconditionally. And in that one kiss that lasted for the longest seven seconds of her life, Maria understood.

Ending the kiss, Becker led her over to the corner sofa at the other side of her office and sat down, pulling her next to him. He turned to face her, his dark eyes boring into hers.

"So what is it?" he asked, his voice soft. When Maria didn't say anything, he continued, "Hey, you've been acting funny nearly all day. I know something's up." Maria curled up on the sofa and wrapped her arms around her knees before resting her head on them. Becker tilted his head to one side so that he was directly in her line of vision again. Maria sighed and, after about a minute of her trying to figure out how to begin, she told him everything. She told him about the first dream she had, and then about the second. She told him everything, down to the last detail, and he listened, a frown forming on his face and becoming deeper and deeper as she went on. Only when she had finished did he speak up.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" he asked, his frown reflecting in his voice.

"I didn't know how to at first, and after that it always seemed to be the wrong moment, or something important was happening. The opportunity never came up, I guess." Maria sighed again.

"So I'm going to die, huh?" Becker smiled slightly. He was evidently trying to lighten the mood. Maria shot him a pained look.

"Don't joke about this, Ryan," she said. She turned away from him. "I can't deal with it as it is." the smile vanished from Becker's face and he slid closer to her across the sofa and put his arm around her.

"I know, I'm sorry." She leaned her head on his shoulder and he held her close, trying for the second time in that day to protect her from the world. On the outside, he was calm. He had to be; Maria needed him and he sure as Hell wasn't going to let her down. But inside, he was freaking out. If Maria's dreams were true, then he was going to get shot, and soon if the ARC had taught him anything. There was, of course, the possibility that these dreams were just that, dreams, but he couldn't be sure about that, and... Becker forced himself to stop thinking about it and calm down before he started hyperventilating or something.

"But that's not the only thing I'm worried about," Maria said suddenly.

"Oh?"

"In my second dream, the one I had in the car, I saw myself shoot Wilder. I just stood there for about five minutes before putting a bullet through his face and walking away." she didn't need to continue; Becker knew all about her aversion to guns and killing. She didn't need to explain what she was going through. He felt something hit his arm and looked down to see a tear glistening on it, which was soon followed by another. Maria looked up at him, an expression in her beautiful emerald eyes that he had never seen in them before. Fear.

"I don't want to become that, Ryan. I don't think i could handle it," Maria's voice cracked and tears started flowing freely down her face again. Becker hated to see her cry; it made him feel empty inside, like everything he had had been taken away from him. Before he could do anything to comfort her, she stood up and started to walk randomly around the office, her hands at her face. She was trying to stop herself from crying. The aching feeling in Becker's chest was almost unbearable now. He stood up himself and went to her, wrapping his arms around her like he had done so many times before.

"Tell me what I can do," he whispered, knowing full well that he couldn't do a damn thing. Maria wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. She knew that he was hurting just as much as she was, but his pain was caused by hers. She figured that if she at least tried to convince him that she wasn't as hurt as she really was, he wouldn't be either. She could at least try to convince one of them that, anyway.

Becker kissed her back, hard, causing Maria to catch her breath and remind herself to keep breathing. He pulled her even closer towards him and ran his hands down her back, sending shivers running after them. He started unbuttoning her shirt and was already sliding it off her shoulders before she even registered what he was doing. She realised that she was smiling for the first time that day as his hands slid under her vest and crept up her back, and his touch felt like fire. It was a good feeling, and Maria found herself wanting it more and more. Just as her mind was catching up to what her body was doing, and Becker's fingers had found the strap of her bra, sirens started going off around them, and the room was bathed in flashing red lights. The Anomaly Detector had gone off. Maria cursed Connor's brain as she and Becker broke apart and his hands slid back down to around her waist.

"The timing of that thing is terrible," he muttered. Maria laughed and he kissed her one last time before pulling her arms down from around his neck and making his way out of the room. Maria picked her shirt up off the desk and followed him out.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14~the Beginning of the End. Sort Of.**

"This had better be good," Becker announced as he practically marched down the ramp and into the Operations Area. Maria, who was following at a more civilised pace, smirked. Jess looked up from the screen of the Anomaly Detector.

"The old anomaly at the racetrack has opened," she said. Becker frowned, directing it at Connor who was lying on his skateboard underneath the Detector to see if this was in fact a technical error or not. He decided it wasn't and stood up.

"And yes, we all thought that that particular anomaly had never closed, but it turns out that Wilder gave us a parting gift. For some reason," Connor paused and leaned over Jess' shoulder to press a button or two on the keypad before continuing. "He decided to upgrade the Detector so that it picks up anomalies unlocking as well,"

"And then he went over to the future anomaly and unlocked it, even though he knew we would be able to find him? That makes no sense." Abby spoke up from the other side of Jess' chair. A camera feed sprang up on Jess' monitor showing the anomaly, as open as open can really get, and the locking mechanism in more pieces than Connor had built it to come in. The two guards Lester had re-posted just that morning were nowhere to be seen. Everyone groaned inwardly. They had been hoping to get at least one good night's sleep before chasing after Wilder again.

"If you think about it," Maria said slowly, "Wilder has always seemed to tell us what his next move is before he does it. Well, either his next or his last, but still, he always tells us what he has just done, like he wants us to follow him or something," She had a point.

"Well, yeah, I guess so, but why?" Connor asked. He knew no one had the answer, but there was no harm in asking.

"I have no idea, but what do you think would happen if we didn't follow him and just left him to it?" Maria shrugged, already liking her plan, mainly because it involved her seeing her flowery bed linen that night. She looked at Becker. "It's at least worth some experimentation," she said. Realising that everyone was looking at him expectantly, and remembering for the first time in the entire week that now Danny wasn't around he was in charge, Becker nodded.

"Fine. He clearly wants us to follow him, so let's throw a spanner in the works," he declared, relaxing quite a bit. In fact, everyone smiled. Connor actually grinned, the most mischievous look he had ever come up with written on his face. The moment was ruined by Burton's first appearance in what seemed like months.

"Excuse me for asking," He said sarcastically, "But why are we all standing around here when there's clearly something far more important going on? I thought those sirens actually meant something." Connor and Abby shared a look. He was evidently getting tips from Lester on how to annoy everyone you work with just by being in the same room.

"Wilder seems to be encouraging us to follow him around on his little magical mystery tour of the anomalies," Becker told him. "So we have decided to do the exact opposite and see what happens." there was silence for a few seconds while Burton tried to figure out what to say.

"Ok then, good idea. Well in that case, you can all go home, you deserve the break, I'll get James to get more security down there, just for now," He nodded and strode back up to Lester's office. Connor and Jess had to bite their lips to stop themselves from laughing until he closed the door. Once he had, however, it was a wonder the ceiling didn't come down. Once the laughter had subsided and Jess had wiped a mascara stain off the Detector's keyboard, Maria stood up.

"Well I, for one, am going to do as told and go home, if that's ok with you all. I'm going home regardless of whether you lot agree or not, actually, so goodnight." She gave them a cheery wave and scooped a set of car keys off the table before striding out of the main doors. The rest of the team shared a look before following her out.

The sun dropped behind the smallest of the high-rises and the figure turned back towards the old, rusted iron stairwell. She didn't want to get caught out in the darkness. When the sun sets the fun begins. Or at least, that's what her mother had told her. Back then everyone thought that the Predators were stronger at night, more deadly. Only a week ago, when a group of them had attacked the settlement in broad daylight, did they even stop to think that it doesn't make a difference. That they are just as vicious in the light as they are in the dark. But of course, that knowledge didn't matter now that there was only two of them. Two out of the original thirty who had managed to survive. The only two to realise that, in the end, they would always be outsmarted by the Predators.

The following morning, the atmosphere in the ARC was amazingly relaxed and calm. It hadn't been like this since before the whole thing with Helen and Johnson started, and no one could really be bothered to remember how long ago THAT was. Abby was in her lab doing something clever with some prehistoric plants, Connor was tinkering with a new contraption that he wouldn't tell anyone about, Jess was creating a programme on the Anomaly Detector that would notify them when an anomaly closed as well as when it opened, just without as many loud noises and flashing lights, and Becker was in the armoury with someone from Prospero who was introducing the newest and best non-lethal weapon available to anyone anywhere. Rumour already had it that Becker wasn't impressed. Maria had even brought Natalie along and was giving her the whole tour of the site. But as cheerful and relaxed as it appeared to be, it didn't take a genius to figure out that it was only a surface performance. Smiles and laughter rarely showed themselves, and when they did, they weren't quite as easy coming as the wearers would have liked to believe. And it was quiet. Not many people were talking, and even fewer were speaking above whispers. The truth of it all was that everyone, even the cleaning staff, were affected by the deaths the mission had caused.

It wasn't until mid-afternoon that Jess finished her programme, and it went off almost immediately, scaring the living daylights out of half the staff. The team, clearly not as preoccupied as they claimed to be, rushed over to hear what was going on.

"Wilder has left and locked the anomaly," Jess announced. And, true enough, the camera feeds showed the anomaly, nicely locked and complete with two perfectly healthy, if a bit unconscious, security guards. Which left one burning question, sitting waving a flag above the pile of mundane, 'what's he up to now?' sort.

How the heck had he managed to lock the anomaly?

"I for one, am suitably curious to go check it out already," Natalie said, breaking the silence. Becker was all for agreeing with her, but didn't notice Burton standing behind him.

"And since you're not an official member of the team yet, your opinion doesn't count." Maria and Natalie both shot him the same vehement look, which he pointedly ignored. "However, I am of the same mind, which is why everyone besides young Miss Holland and Jess will be going to investigate." Natalie's glower deepened. "You will take the new EMDs; bullets cost money and we seem to be using an awful lot of them recently." he threw a pointed look at Becker, whose expression clearly told him that they were going to take this up at a later date. "It will be a scout mission, far too many people were killed last time, so only the four of you will be going. You will leave as soon as you can prepare everything you need." Looking unbearably pleased with himself, he turned to leave. Maria didn't even wait until there was a closed door between them before commenting.

"Do you think he enjoys himself? Or is it some weird sub-clause in the job description?"

"I don't think he quite realises what the phrase 'Free-Lance Staff' means," Natalie decided, still glaring at the back of Burton's grey suit. Maria shrugged in agreement.

"He has a point though," she said, her tone softening. "You are in no way ready to take on a pack of angry future predators. It's better if you sit this one out and explain your father's new tracking devices to Jess. Again." Natalie laughed. Seb had given her a handful of small black boxes that he claimed would send a signal to the central command box (which was currently hooked up to the Anomaly Detector) even if it had gone through an anomaly, so long as the anomaly was still open. He didn't know if it would work with a locked one. They would have to test that for themselves. Natalie did not get what Jess didn't understand about the whole thing. It wasn't like she was talking Russian or anything.

"EMDs?" Connor asked Becker.

"Hm? Oh, yes, the high-tech Tasers. To put it bluntly, the man from Prospero who was telling me about them was convinced to the point of blindness that they were far better than ordinary weaponry and was far too busy telling me how amazing they are to actually tell me what EMD stands for, so don't ask. If you ask me, using them against Predators is a suicide mission." There was an awkward silence that lasted for at least a minute.

"Well," Maria chimed eventually, "After those fantastic words of encouragement from our team leader, let's go!" she was really overdoing the sarcasm.

"Yes. Let's." Becker said sardonically. The rest of the team shared looks and dispersed from around the anomaly detector, grabbing tracking devices on their way.

She watched with open curiosity as the old man leaped with seemingly no regard for his own personal safety over the burnt out car shell and down the trench. She hadn't noticed that before. This was the third time he had seen him roaming around the city now, and she was uncharacteristically curious to see what he was doing down there and how he had got there in the first place. She thought for a moment about finding out but eventually decided against it. As brilliant as finding another human colony would be, she had other responsibilities and couldn't go gallivanting off on some potentially suicidal investigation into something that clearly wasn't her business. And besides, she had figured out that it was safer in smaller groups. The old man could do whatever he liked down in that ditch, as long as it didn't tell the Predators the location of their hideout or endanger anyone's life. She would have loved to know where he was coming from though. Later, maybe. Not now. Now she had to get back.

"So what's our plan again?" Maria asked. She hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention to Becker's last briefing, and the one before that she hadn't even realised that he was talking, so had gone off in search of some sterilisation wipes. She hoped he wouldn't take it personally. She had been insulting him far too much today. He threw her a look that made her feel really, really guilty about it and recited for the third time in fifteen minutes their plan.

"We go in, we cover Abby while she tracks down Wilder and, that accomplished, we follow him. Once he is found we capture him if possible, tag him if not, and then get the hell out of there. If anything goes even slightly wrong, we abort. If we see even hide or hair of a predator, we abort. Am I understood?" He would have given Maria a pointed look if he hadn't been driving at the time. Instead, he aimed it at the tarmac in front of him.

"Yes, sir," Maria declared.

"Good." Becker didn't sound the slightest bit amused. Maria made a mental note to apologise when all this was over and done with.

Soon enough, they were pulling up at the security barrier at the racetrack and, now that said racetrack was owned and manned by the ARC, they sped straight through and up to the garage at the other end of the compound. Squealing to a stop, everyone climbed out of the pickup and began assembling the EMDs from the back. Connor made his way over to the anomaly and examined it, trying to determine what Wilder had used to keep it locked. Finding nothing, he poked it, to find that it rushed open as soon as his finger got within three inches of it. He moved backwards, and it sprang closed again. He spent the next minute grinning like an idiot and moving backwards and forwards in front of the anomaly, before Jess' voice in his ear told him to stop it; he was setting all the alarms off in the ARC more times than necessary. Undeterred, Connor went back to the others and explained Wilder's evident use of future technology to lock and unlock the anomaly. Maria didn't have the heart to point out to him that motion and proximity sensors weren't all that futuristic. They did one last check to make sure that everything they were likely to need was in their rucksacks, shared a glance and a silent 'good luck,' and stepped through the anomaly.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15~Discoveries**

The three others made a rough circle around Abby, facing outwards and moving with her as she slowly prowled across the ground towards the road. Her plan was to go as far as the line of cars before turning back and starting again at the anomaly but going in the opposite direction. She didn't know what the others expected her to find. A boot print? A shoelace? She didn't even know what to look for. She was just straightening up to go back to the anomaly and start again when she saw it. A footprint in the dirt. It was bare and too small to belong to Wilder, but it had been made no more than a week ago, and there were more of them. A lot more. She tapped Becker on the shoulder and pointed. He crouched down and examined them before turning to Abby with a frown on his face. She shrugged. She hadn't expected to find any signs of human life here at all either, but there it was, as plain as can be. She led the way through the barren city, going deeper in than they had ever been before, mostly trusting her instincts to tell her where the next print would be but occasionally catching sight of a sign that more children had been there. A football goalpost drawn in stone on a wall, a button lying next to a flight of steps, even half a teddy bear that looked like it had been thrown at a Predator and used as a temporary distraction. Abby was amazed that they hadn't seen anyone around here before. Admittedly, they had never been this far into the city, and the further in they went the more obvious the signs of life became, but the occasional person had been to the outskirts. Or maybe the people from this time had been watching them all along; they had just never known it.

A tapping on her shoulder made her jump. It was Connor. Maria and Becker had stopped a few paces behind and Maria was pointing over Abby's head at the top of one of the high-rise buildings surrounding them.

The four people made their way across the street. Four tiny people that she could only make out details of because of her magnifying visor. One of them looked pretty trigger-happy. The big man seemed to point his gun at every slight sound or movement. She didn't blame him. She had done the same thing once. The smaller man moved protectively around the blonde woman at the front of the procession, as if he was guarding her and the other two were guarding him. The fourth, a red-haired woman, the only one of them not to have a gun in her hands, brought up the rear, her keen eyes not missing anything. As she watched, the redhead did a panoramic scope of the top of the buildings and for a second seemed to look her straight in the face. She couldn't have seen her, though. She was too far away, even though the boiler suit she was wearing was bright orange. To her dismay, the redhead tapped the big man on the shoulder and he spun round. The redhead pointed straight up at her and she ducked behind the ledge of the building, heart pounding, hoping that she hadn't made too much noise on the gravel to attract any unwanted attention. She slowly counted to ten before standing up again. Three of the strange people had moved on and were too far underneath the building now for her to see, but the redhead had stayed, and was staring with intensity right at her. The blazing green eyes lowered for a moment as the redhead nodded at someone else in her party and locked with hers again before the redhead moved along with the others underneath the building. She breathed a sigh of relief, her heart rate slowing down a little. Maybe she would get to pay her strange guests a visit after all...

Becker nearly jumped out of his skin as Maria's hand tapped him on the shoulder. He needed to calm down and stop jumping around at everything. He knew he wouldn't, but he could at least try. He gave Maria a questioning look and turned around again to follow her pointing arm. He thought he saw a flash of fluorescent orange at the very top of the building they were standing in front of, but he just assumed that his eyes were playing tricks on him. He faced Maria again and shrugged, his face telling her that he thought she was seeing things. The dip in her eyebrows deepened slightly but she shrugged back, not taking her eyes off that spot on the roof. He motioned with his head that they were going to keep moving and didn't wait for a response before starting after Connor and Abby, who had realised that they had stopped and were waiting for them a few paces ahead. He had reached them before realising that Maria wasn't following him and turned back again, a look of impatience on his face. She nodded at him before giving the roof one final stare and following after him, only actually looking where she was walking when she had reached the shadow of the high-rise and couldn't see the top of it anymore. Becker gave her a look that was meant to say something like 'What were you doing back there?' She evidently took it to mean something else because she glared at him and stepped past him, trying to get as far away from him as possible. When he tried to get her attention by putting a hand on her shoulder she moved so that it slid off and just kept on walking. Becker sighed inwardly. If talking wouldn't have endangered their lives, he would have asked her what her problem was. But then again, if talking wouldn't have endangered their lives, he wouldn't have even needed to ask. He was already dreading when they got back home and the argument they were obviously not going to avoid. Maria held on to things like that.

Suddenly, the worst happened, and the crouched, grisly form of a Predator rounded the corner ahead of them, stopping as it realised that there was something in front of it. Without really thinking about it, Becker grabbed Maria's arm and pushed her against the wall of the nearest building, nearly knocking her off her feet. He stood in front of her as close as he could without making her uncomfortable and put a finger over her lips. Her eyes blazed for a moment with something Becker couldn't recognise before she caught sight of the predator over his shoulder and she straightened up, her eyes forming a completely unreadable mask. She turned her head slightly so that his finger wasn't over her lips anymore and the most crushing feeling Becker had ever experienced seeped through him. Somehow, the fact that there was a predator standing not ten metres away seemed like a trivial matter compared to Maria's sudden but not unwarranted coldness towards him. He had been being sarcastic and dry towards her all day, but he hadn't realised until now that there was only so much she could take. The thought brought with it the sudden urge to let her know that he didn't hate her, as she probably assumed, but he decided that kissing her in the middle of a crisis might not be the best thing to do. At least the predator would have to get through him before it reached her. At least he would be able to buy her some time, even if it was only a second or two.

Without any warning whatsoever, a window shattered two stories above them, sending shards of broken glass raining down onto them. Becker tried to shield Maria from as much of it as possible, thankful for his Kevlar jacket for the first time in an age. Then about three things all happened at once. The predator stalled and growled towards the window, confused by the sudden explosion of noise. Taking advantage of the distraction, Maria pulled Becker's EMD out of his hand and shot the predator, turning the power all the way up, at the same time as bullets rained down silently from the window above them, each one finding its target. The shooting stopped and Becker turned, taking in the now very dead predator. Whoever had been shooting had done a very good job. He was too busy thanking his stars that he wasn't dead right now to notice the person in the orange boiler suit jump down from the window and land silently on the gravel until Maria elbowed him in the ribs. Turning around again, he saw Abby and Connor emerge from a nearby doorway, confusion written on their faces, and standing between him and them was someone, he couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman as the helmet had no window at the front, just a small camera that seemed to give the wearer a full view of everything in front of them. The bright orange boiler suit almost made Becker want to laugh, and he probably would have if the circumstances had been any different. The suit motioned for them to follow it and without waiting for a response began walking across the street, in such a way that its footfalls made no noise whatsoever on the gravel. Sharing a look and a shrug with Connor and Abby, Becker made to follow the boiler suit, and looked around, purely out of habit, for Maria. She was already walking straight past him, handing his EMD back as she did so without even looking at him. The crushed feeling reared its unwanted head in Becker's chest again as he remembered that she was still angry with him, and waited for Abby and Connor to follow Maria before bringing up the rear.

The woman in the boiler suit; Connor had assumed that she was a she because of the way she was walking; led them through a warren of backstreets and side lanes that took them further and further into the city as they went. Signs of recent human activity became more and more obvious the further in they went. Now and again, string stretched between windows and occasionally, half destroyed pieces of clothing hung from them. It seemed that humans had continued to live in this city for far longer than the surroundings suggested. Connor glanced back at Becker, mainly just to check that he hadn't been eaten or anything, before doing the same with Abby and Maria. Maria was walking further ahead than the others, almost in line with the boiler suit, and she seemed to be in another world and paying no attention to her surroundings. Connor wondered if something was wrong. Not only was it dangerous, but it took a lot to make Maria loose her concentration.

The woman stopped in a doorway and waited for them all to catch up before disappearing through the only whole door they had come across on their entire journey. Stairs began immediately inside and the boiler suit waited for them all to go inside before closing the door and locking it with something that resembled the locking mechanism on a bank vault. They all started up the stairs as she tapped a key code into a panel next to the door and a rushing sound, similar to the one the anomalies made when they unlocked, echoed back from the door, as if it had been vacuum locked or something. The boiler suit slipped past the ARC team up the narrow stairs and pushed open the door at the top, before stepping through a hole in the wall that had probably been made to expand the apartment into the one next to it. Connor sucked in a breath. Despite the layer of dust and smell of mould, the apartment was very well furnished. There was a leather corner sofa in one corner, facing a TV unit that was bigger than the screen on the Anomaly Detector. It wasn't on, and Connor doubted that any channels were available anyway, but it still looked impressive. There were also silk and velvet curtains on all the windows and what had probably once been high quality wallpaper plastering the walls. The scene was ruined slightly by another hole in the wall next to the corner unit, but, needs must, Connor thought.

By this point, the boiler suit woman had taken off her helmet, revealing a young woman in probably her mid twenties with blonde hair and a rather girlish face that was covered in freckles.

"Nice place," Connor said, looking round again, just to break the silence if anything else.

"Really? Thanks, I didn't design it but hey," the blonde shrugged, grinning, and walked over to the other hole and poked her head through it. "Hey, Anton, we have guests!" she shouted. The unmistakeable sound of something metallic falling off a table echoed through the hole, making Connor smirk. She turned back to the group and stared at them for a few seconds before bursting into giggles.

"Sorry," she said, composing herself, "I'm Valerie, Valerie Bates. And this... Hang on a second," She went back to the hole in the wall and shouted through it again.

"Anton! Get over here!" a man's voice replied something Connor didn't catch but caused Valerie to scowl. "Ok, now you're just being rude," she said.

Connor shared a look with Abby. She had the same thoughts as he did: this girl was seriously weird.

After a moment, Valerie returned, this time followed by a tall man of about the same age but had an air of intelligence and importance floating around him. He was clearly unhappy about being dragged away from whatever he had been doing, but stopped sulking when he noticed the team, and his eyebrows shot up. Well, one of them did. The other was too well hidden by his fringe to be seen.

"And this is Anton," Valerie chirped. "Don't mind his antisocialness; he does it all the time."

"Anti-socialism. Antisocialness isn't a word," Anton muttered. He returned the look that Valerie shot him and dodged the slap she sent his way as well. He had a thick Russian accent, which made Connor wonder what he was doing here in the first place.

"It is now!" Valerie declared. "Please, make yourselves at home. I want to hear all about you and how you got here and... Well everything, really." She smiled broadly at them all before practically skipping through the hole in the wall behind them, her boiler suit draped over one arm. Anton rolled his eyes in complete despair before disappearing back the way he had come, leaving the team alone in the main room. They stood in silence for a moment, all sharing the same thoughts, before Connor flopped down on the sofa.

"So, opinions? First impressions? This sofa is very comfy, by the way," Abby gave him a look but sat down next to him anyway.

"How long do you reckon they've been here?" she wondered out loud.

"It seems, and I'm not expert mind you, that they've only been alone in this place for a few days, a week or two at most," Maria said.

"Well, yeah, I noticed all that stuff outside too, but where is everyone else?" Abby wasn't too enthusiastic about letting the matter go so quickly. She wanted to know why these two people, who clearly had completely opposite personality traits, were alone in this barren wasteland of a city, and why they hadn't hot-footed it out of the first anomaly that had appeared.

"Don't forget that we have a mission to accomplish here," Becker spoke up. "We can't stay too long, or the ARC will send people out looking for us,"

"Killjoy," Maria muttered.

She was positively bubbling as she hung her boiler suit up in the closet across from the living room. People! At last they weren't the only ones. Ok, so they hadn't been by themselves for more than a couple of weeks, but that was enough to drive a person crazy under the right circumstances. But that didn't matter anymore.

They were no longer alone.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16~a Little Bit of Not-History**

"So," Valerie said brightly, reappearing through the hole, "I would offer tea and biscuits, but we don't have anything, so I won't. And I promise I'm not always this crazy, you guys are just the only people I've seen besides Mr Ego over there for about two weeks now, so I'm a bit overexcited," She sat down on the other end of the corner unit and curled her legs up underneath herself. She looked at the three strangers on the sofa; Becker had remained standing so she chose to ignore him rather than let him intimidate her; and began firing off questions.

"So who are you and how come you're here?"

"I'm Abby, that's Connor, this is Maria and up there's Becker," Abby said, pointing each person out in turn. "We've been here before, you know, we came through the anomaly just by the outskirts of the city, near the old ARC building." Valerie's eyes widened at the mention of anomalies.

"There's an anomaly?" She asked intrigued, "How long has that been there?"

"A few months at least," Connor said. "It never seems to want to close, for some reason." Valerie looked stunned.

"Wow, an anomaly on our doorstep all this time." Her voice drifted quieter and her eyes lost their sparkle. "And we never knew..." Abby, Connor and Maria shared a look. She knew that she might have been able to save her people if she had known. And she blamed herself for that. Maria sensed that she needed to break the silence, and fast.

"Why don't you tell us a little about yourself," she offered. This seemed to bring Valerie out of her trance.

"Well, I was born here some twenty six years ago, by which point the Predators had already turned this place into a deserted wasteland. My parents had managed to survive, along with another thirty or so people, and we just kind of managed, really. Anton and his folks turned up when i was three and he was five, Russia had already been pretty much destroyed by then. You see, even in your time, anomalies were a far bigger thing than anyone realised. Every country that found them, which was pretty much all of them, kept it a secret, so no one realised that it was a global problem until some idiot in Portugal decided to write a front-page newspaper article on it. News of it spread to the Portuguese public and then there was no stopping it. If nothing had been said, then all this PROBABLY wouldn't have happened. Hang on, what year have you guys come from?"

"2011," Connor supplied.

"Oh, ok, then you only have... Three years. Great. Fantastic. Absolutely BRILLIANT, and you know what? There's nothing anyone can even think of doing about it! Ha!" Valerie leaned backwards on the sofa and seemed to go into some kind of hysterics. Anton's voice echoed through from the other room, making them all jump.

"Val, stop being melodramatic!" he shouted. Valerie's head snapped up.

"I am not being melodramatic," she said, indignant. "I am being honest." Anton stepped through the hole in the wall and threw something at her.

"In a melodramatic way," he said. He turned to the team, who probably looked about as freaked out as they felt. "She's always doing that, just ignore it." he leant on the arm of the sofa next to Valerie and stared at the thing he had thrown at her, which she was frowning at too.

"What is it? And that hurt, by the way,"

"It's not my fault you can't catch. It's a Sonar scanner that won't give away our position. I've already tested it. It works." Valerie hit him in the stomach.

"Oh, ok, thanks for letting us know that you were endangering our lives in there," she said sardonically.

"You'll get over it,"

"Probably. Did you find him?" Anton nodded and pointed at the screen. Valerie nodded, impressed, and turned the scanner around so the team could see it. "You don't happen to know who this is, do you?" Abby took the device and studied it, showing it to Connor and Maria.

"Well that just made our lives easier," Connor said. The screen showed a birds-eye picture of Wilder doing something in a trench, and down the side it displayed current location, recent locations and even his blood type. It seemed he had been travelling to and from the trench and the anomaly for the last few hours. Connor wondered why Jess hadn't told them what he was doing, before realising for the first time that day that the communications system didn't work through a locked anomaly.

"I'll take that as a yes, then," Anton said, taking back the scanner and putting it in the back pocket of his jeans.

"Let's just say that he is the reason we're having this conversation," Maria said. Her mood still hadn't improved from earlier, and she really could not be bothered to hide it. Connor gave her a look before explaining.

"We came through the anomaly to find him, and found you guys instead," he said. "We need to capture him and take him back home with us; he's caused us more trouble in the last few days than you can imagine."

"I'm pretty sure I can," Valerie said.

"Hang on," Abby spoke up. "You said that Russia had already been destroyed. By what?"

"The predators. What else?" Valerie said in a stating-the-obvious kind of way.

"How?" Valerie sighed.

"You explain, you're better at it than me," she directed at Anton, who gave her a look, sighed and flicked his fringe out of his face before beginning.

"Basically, seventy years ago, give or take, the Portuguese anomalies were leaked, you know that already, and in about three months the entire world knew about it, and Governments all over were forced to admit that, actually, they had been keeping it secret for the last decade. Then, as you can imagine, three groups formed: People who wanted to help the anomaly fighting and supported it, people who really didn't care as long as it didn't affect their lives in any way, and the people who disagreed with the way the situation was being handled and thought that it should just be allowed to happen. You know, 'Mother Nature is always right' and all that. Extremists formed on both sides and after a while, someone in... Was it Texas or Alabama?"

"Texas. Alabama was the next bit," Valerie supplied.

"...Someone in Texas created a creature that could move at speeds faster than humans were capable of, had superhuman intelligence and advanced senses so that it could be used to herd the creatures that came through anomalies back through, thus minimising human involvement and civilian casualties. The creature was perfect; it was basically a dog with an advanced everything. Animal Rights spokespeople couldn't even think up anything decent to throw at them because hundreds of people were being killed by the creatures that came through every year. Three years later, though, someone on the other end of the scale than the Texas guy captured one of these Super Sheepdogs and tried to enhance it. In trying to make it even more intelligent, he accidentally knocked out the part that distinguishes prey from master, and turned it into the Predators we all know and don't love. It killed him and then went on a murderous rampage throughout the town he lived in, where it found one of the original creatures, mated with it, and then killed it when the litter arrived. These Predators destroyed everything. The humans thought that a large enough force of the originals would be enough to stop it, but by this point the Predator had mated another three times and there were something like fifty of them. In two months, the USA was completely devoid of human life. Completely. Then the Predators moved into Canada and Mexico, stowed away on ships to Mainland Europe and, seeing as nearly everywhere else is connected to Europe, they slowly infiltrated the planet. Australia survived the longest, until a couple of Predators got on a plane, and that was it."

"How come you came here?" Abby asked him. Anton smirked.

"My parents did the math and figured that Britain would be the place with the most survivors. Turns out they were right, actually, but..." He sighed, his face changing as Valerie's had when she was reflecting about their past. Valerie put a hand on his arm and he jumped, before getting up and going back into the other room. Valerie sighed.

"He blames himself for what happened. I don't know why, he never talks about it, but he thinks it was his fault that the Predators found our last hideout. That's also why he never goes outside anymore. He'll be in a sulk for a while, just don't go in there."

"What did happen to your last place?" Connor asked.

"The Predators found it and attacked. I don't know how, why or the details, I wasn't there. I was off on one of my little explorations. One of the kids probably forgot to shut the door properly behind them or something, I don't know." there was a pause while someone tried to think of something to say. Before anyone needed to, however, Anton's voice came through the hole in the wall.

"Valerie, you need to see this," Confused, Valerie got up and was in the other room in a flash. Connor, Abby, Maria and Becker followed her through, to find Anton and Valerie peering at the screen of a computer.

"We need to get out of here. Now." Anton declared. He spun the screen around so that the team could see it. In the middle of a schematic of the city, or at least most of it, was an orange dot, presumably symbolising the scanner that was giving them the rest of it. Surrounding the orange dot where about twenty smaller, red dots.

"They've found us."


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17~Endangered**

Valerie's statement turned everyone's blood to ice. How had they found them so quickly? And how were they going to get out of there undetected?

"We need to go," Anton said again, standing up and pulling the power lead from behind his computer. Valerie recovered first and led the way back to the main room and out into the corridor, where she opened up the closet that stored the boiler suits.

"Put one of these on, and make sure there aren't any holes in it,"

"How are these going to help us get out of here?" Connor asked.

"The material, coupled with a very clever system of wires and switches, hides your heartbeat and the sound of your breathing from the Predators. If you come face to face with one, stand perfectly still. They won't be able to hear you and whatever you do, do not run. Just walk away very, VERY slowly." Valerie pulled on her own suit and handed one to Anton, who was now carrying a rucksack. The team followed his lead and put their own rucksacks on underneath their suits, so that the material didn't rub together outside of the soundproofing, and Valerie handed them all helmets.

"The monitors in these things tell you everything you need to know: what's in front of you, left screen, what's behind you, right screen, if there's any flaws in the suit that would let any sound escape, the hopefully green light next to the front view screen, and how many people you're talking to, the number above the green light. There will also be a soft 'Ping' noise when another radio comes into range. The radio system in these things will work for a hundred metres and will connect with every system within that distance. If you stare at a particular thing on a screen for more than five seconds, it will zoom in on it. It's a little disorientating at first, but you'll get used to it." The team put their helmets on and tinny buzzing sounds filled their ears. "The buzzing is it telling you that it's working, don't try and get rid of it. Are we all set? Good, follow me then," Valerie walked to the other end of the corridor, the opposite to the stairs, and kicked at a wall panel. The panel slid downwards, revealing a window, and Valerie slid it upwards. She grabbed onto the rope ladder attached to a higher up window and began to climb. As she went, she saw three predators jump onto the roof. If they weren't out of there quickly, they were done for. She stepped down onto the gravel floor and began to walk slowly towards an alley. The team followed her lead. The Predators seemed completely oblivious to them.

"You need to lead us to the old ARC building," Abby whispered. She didn't trust the suit yet.

"Ok. You can talk normally you know," Valerie sounded completely un-phased by what they were doing. It made Abby even more cautious.

"What about Wilder?" Maria asked.

"What about him?" Connor said.

"Well if we know where he is, why don't we go pick him up?"

"Because I quite like being alive right now, and I intend to stay that way." Maria cursed the fact that she couldn't turn her radio off.

"Actually, Maria has a point," Becker said.

"Please don't tell me we're making a detour?" Connor was heartbroken.

"We're making a detour. Valerie, can you get us to that trench he seems to like at the moment?"

"Sure, it's not far; we just need to get up onto the rooftops."

"Guys, if we all start coming at him from over the rooftops in these things, Wilder is going to see us." Abby announced.

"I didn't think of that," Becker said. "What's your plan?"

"If we pair up and all come in different directions, then if he sees one pair, then there's a fair chance he'll run towards one of the others,"

"Good idea."

"Ok, ok, but before you all go gallivanting off, we need to get up there first," Valerie pointed out. They made the rest of the journey in silence; up a set of metal stairs that made so much noise just by taking their weight that it was a wonder the Predators didn't come running straight away, down a few corridors of what once was an office building and up a fire escape onto the roof. The air conditioning units blocked their view of just about everything, so they stopped to draw up a plan.

"Valerie and Anton, you go around and close in on Wilder from the left, Abby and Connor from the right, and Maria and I will go face-on. We agreed?" Becker looked around for approval before realising that they couldn't actually see him anyway, so just went with the sounds of affirmation that came through his radio. Maria was not happy with the arrangement, but what could she do? She and Becker would have to get whatever was between them off their chests at some point soon anyway, before one of them went crazy. After finalising the plan: wait until everyone is in position before closing Wilder down, Becker spouted a few words of encouragement and they all moved off in their different directions. Most of the buildings were so close together that they could just jump the gaps, so after walking in a straight line for about five minutes, Becker couldn't take the silence any longer. Checking that no one else could hear him, because that would be embarrassing beyond comprehension, he took a deep breath.

"Ok, what did I do?" Probably not the smoothest of starting points, but it was the only one he could think of. He heard Maria snicker.

"Nothing. Nothing you would find offensive, anyway,"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You remember when we first got here? When I saw something on a roof?"

"Yes,"

"Did you intend to give me that look?"

"What look?"

"The 'stop being stupid and concentrate' look." Becker was silent for a minute. He knew what she was talking about. The look that was supposed to ask what she had been doing but obviously hadn't been interpreted that way.

"No," he eventually said. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant to ask what you had seen."

"Well then you need to work on expressional communication," she muttered. Becker stopped and turned on her.

"Well I'm sorry, but I'm not the one who's overreacting!" he shouted. Maria gasped and took a half-step backwards, knowing full well that she needed to get a lot further away for that to be any less fierce. She had forgotten that he could hear everything she said, no matter how quietly she said it, and hadn't meant to say that out loud anyway.

"I... Ryan, I didn't mean... You weren't supposed to hear that," she said.

"Well I did." Becker snapped, and carried on walking. Maria's breathing became louder through the speakers behind his left ear, but it wasn't until she couldn't hold the sobs back any longer that he realised she was crying. He stopped again, his anger completely dissolved, and turned back to her. He hated to see her cry, and the fact that he had just made her cry himself was unbearable. He pulled off his helmet, the Predators the least of his worries at that point, and pulled off hers too. Tears were streaming down her face and she stared at him with apologies written all over it. He stared back for a few seconds before pulling her close to him and stroking her hair.

"I'm sorry..." She started, but he cut her off.

"No, shh, I'm sorry. And you're right, I've never been good at the whole expressions thing anyway," this cheered her up a bit, and she pulled back from him, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her suit.

"Friends?" Becker asked her.

"Friends." He hugged her again before planting a kiss on her cheek and handing back her helmet. He put his own on and used the multiple cameras to check that their little emotional outburst hadn't been detected. Satisfied that it hadn't, he scouted around for their destination. It was only a few roofs ahead of them.

"Come on, we're nearly there anyway," Maria didn't say anything, but Becker got the feeling that she was smiling.

Wilder pushed the last of the chips into place and stood up, stretching. A burst of colour caught his eye and he looked up. On top of a roof directly in front of him stood two figures; he was too far away to figure out whom precisely, but as the sun came out from behind the clouds and the smaller of the two's head seemed to catch on fire he recognised Maria Holland. Only she had hair that did that. Wilder frowned, getting irritated that they hadn't cottoned on yet. He wanted them to follow him, not sit on rooftops watching him. He decided that if they couldn't do as he wanted he would have to give them a reason to do it of their own accord. He picked up his Anomaly Opening Device, grinning to himself at the cunningness of his plan, and checked how many bullets he had left in his gun.

Abby and Connor settled into position above Wilder and his trench, making sure that if he did accidentally look up, he wouldn't see them immediately. Abby looked across the gap in the buildings to where Valerie and Anton were supposed to be, and the camera view zoomed in, revealing two orange figures striding across the opposite rooftops. They would be in their positions in less than two minutes. Looking to her left, she saw Maria and Becker settling into theirs. They knew the signal: Becker waves his arm in the air and they go for it. She looked down at the foot of the building Becker and Maria were on top of, and watched as five Predators began fighting over something. She hoped that Anton didn't notice it as she realised that it was a human corpse. Looking back at Wilder, she watched him stand up and stretch. As he did so, however, a frown crossed his face, then a mischievous grin, and then... Abby poked Connor and pointed as Wilder took up his Anomaly Opening Device and in the space of two seconds was gone.

"What the..?" Connor stuttered.

"Come on," Abby stood up. "We have to warn the others." Connor got up behind her and they both started across the buildings at a run, hoping to reach Becker and Maria before Wilder appeared somewhere unexpected.

Maria peeked cautiously over the edge of the building, checked for the ninth time in the space of five minutes that the sound-proofing on her suit was working properly, and watched as three predators jumped over the once-blue Ford Fiesta lying on its side in the middle of the road and joined their friends in feasting on a human corpse. Poor guy. Maria blinked. She could remember this, as if she had been there before, watching the same thing. Becker must have sensed that something was wrong; he was scarily good at that.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, I just feel like I've been here before, that's all," Then it hit her: her first dream. She had been so caught up in the fact that Becker had been killed to realise that that was how it started, with five predators eating someone. In her dream she had thought it had been Danny or Lou, but this time she knew it wasn't. But other than that... Maria swore very loudly.

"Wow, steady on..."

"My dream." Maria said, pulling off her helmet and facing him. Not the cleverest thing to do with five predators sitting below them but she didn't care at that moment. "Ryan, this is how my dream started," Becker's eyes widened. He had removed his own helmet too, and the shock on his face was evident. Maria looked up, to the right, and saw Connor and Abby running towards them. She heard the soft pinging from her helmet to tell her that the radios were in range but didn't wait to let the rest unfold. She turned before the words of warning had even left Connor's mouth, just in time to see the anomaly materialise in front of them. Without thinking twice, she ran towards it, aiming to push Wilder back through before he managed to shoot anyone. He didn't go that way, though, instead stumbled past the anomaly and rolled onto the floor next to it. It didn't close, just stood there and glistened. Wilder looked up, confused, and flicked his gaze between Maria and Becker. How had she known that he would be there? Oh well, not even she could move faster than bullets. He aimed and fired at Becker again, in less than a second, but instead of pushing him out of the way, that idiot Maria Holland ran in front of him.

Maria felt her entire lower body go numb before the sound of the gun firing even reached her ears. When it did, it was loud. Too loud. She hadn't even thought about it, she had just run as soon as she saw the thought of firing another shot cross Wilder's face. As soon as the numbness began to spread, Time slowed down for her, and all she could hear was her heart beating. She couldn't tell where the bullet had hit her, she just knew that it had, and instead of pain was a numbness that made her legs want to buckle underneath her. Instead, she reached behind her for where Becker's EMD was now in his hand, grabbed it, and fired three times at Wilder. The first two missed; he was already up and running; but the third succeeded in finding its target: right between his shoulder blades. It knocked him forwards and through the anomaly, which closed behind him, just as another orange suited figure appeared in her field of vision and tried to jump through it.

All this only happened in the space of a few seconds, if that, but to Maria it felt like minutes. She turned back to Becker just as the adrenalin wore off and a searing pain rocketed through her abdomen and she dropped the EMD. She saw Becker shout her name but heard nothing as she sank to her knees, too weak to stand, too weak to even keep her eyes open anymore. Instead of hitting the hard roof as she had expected, she fell into Becker's arms, which were far more comfortable, and she stared into his beautiful brown eyes as she drifted off into a sleep that was more than welcome.

Becker watched Maria go sprinting towards the anomaly and shove Wilder hard, his bullet going wide as he hit the floor. He pulled his arms out from his boiler suit and pushed it down to around his waist so that he could reach his EMD, and as he did so, in his one moment of concentration failure, Wilder fired again. Before Becker could even react, Maria was in front of him again, and the feeling of the bullet entering his body never happened. He cottoned onto what had happened immediately: Maria had taken the shot for him. His EMD was snatched out of his hand as Wilder got up off the floor and Maria fired it three times, each scarily accurate for someone who hated using guns. Only the third found its target, though, and it made Wilder pitch forwards into the anomaly which closed immediately, just as Connor reached it and made to jump through it. Becker could imagine him swearing rather extravagantly right about now. He looked back at Maria as she turned to face him, her face calm, and he wondered if Wilder had even hit her in the first place.

Then he saw the blood.

Maria's eyes crumpled in pain as she dropped the EMD and sank to her knees. Becker shouted her name as he darted forwards to catch her before she fell over completely, and just before her eyes closed, he saw it: the same look of contentment that had been in the eyes of every single soldier under his command who had been killed in Afghanistan, all that time ago. That was the last look in anyone's eyes; the look they get when they know they are going to die. At that moment, one single thought echoed through Becker's mind: Maria Holland was NOT going to die.

Abby's hand entered his field of vision, checking Maria's pulse. Becker didn't realise she was trying to talk to him until someone slapped him in the face, making him blink and force himself to return to the present.

"Becker, we need to get her back to the anomaly, and fast. She's still alive; we might be able to save her if we get her to the ARC in time." Becker nodded and shifted Maria's limp form in his arms so that she wouldn't fall, before standing up. As he did so his gaze locked with Abby's and they shared the same thought, the same painful reality that neither of them, especially not Becker, wanted to admit. Only someone with Maria's healing abilities could save her now, and the only other person with those was Lou, and he was dead. No matter how quickly they got her back there, she didn't have a chance.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18~The Heart Never Lies**

Natalie stood, hands on hips, in front of the anomaly, her impatience becoming increasingly evident to the security guards behind her. Jess wasn't doing much to help; she was constantly asking if she could see anything, when they both knew that the CCTV cameras in this place told her more than Natalie could see anyway. Telling her for the nine billionth time that there was nothing new going on, Natalie went outside. Then she went back in again. She was restless. Abby, Connor, Maria and Becker were supposed to have been back at least two hours ago and she was very tempted to go in after them, by herself if necessary. She was defying both Lester and Burton by being there in the first place but she didn't care anymore. She had a feeling that something had gone very horribly wrong.

Just as she couldn't take it anymore and was about to tell Jess in as few words as possible to stop nagging her and get a rescue team down there, the anomaly sprang open with a rushing sound, making her jump. The first one through was Connor, who immediately began talking into his radio and telling Jess to alert the medics to prepare for a severe casualty. The word severe made Natalie's blood run cold. The next person through was Abby, followed by two more people in bright orange boiler suits. Now that she looked, they were all wearing orange boiler suits, but Abby and Connor had the top halves tied around their waists. Relief washed through Natalie. There were four people. That was good, right? The two others had to be Becker and Maria, and someone had broken an arm or something. That had to be it. Of course, it wasn't until one of the suited figures took their helmet off to reveal a blonde woman did Natalie even think that they didn't even look like Becker, or Maria for that matter. Not until then did she even concede the possibility that anything more serious had happened. The relief she had briefly experienced vanished as Becker stepped through the anomaly. He was carrying something... No, not something. Someone. Natalie knew who it was before Becker had even got all the way through the anomaly. Maria. Something had happened to Maria.

All of a sudden, everyone moved at once, people started yelling and she was pushed backwards out of the way by ARC medics who seemed to spring from nowhere. Before the word even went through her head, an ARC ambulance rolled up in the garage and, as he refused to let go of her, Becker carried Maria inside it, saying something Natalie didn't catch to Connor on the way. The rear doors slammed and the ambulance tore away, lights and sirens blazing, leaving the garage eerily quiet. Natalie caught Abby's gaze and saw nothing that she wanted to see. Everything from sorrow to pity to resignation, but no hope. Natalie wasn't having that. She wasn't going to wait around for Abby to be proven right or wrong. She ran outside and jumped on her motorbike, not even bothering to put her helmet on before hurtling after the ambulance at a speed that killed the silencer on her engine in three seconds flat and would probably land her a few years in prison. But that was the thing about speeding on a motorbike. They have to catch you first.

Jess sat fidgeting in her seat as she watched the blip on her scanner screen that was Becker's signal rocket down the motorway towards the ARC. Natalie's signal hurtled past it at twice the speed about a minute after it left the garage; she must have been trying to get back to the ARC before the medics did. She didn't blame her. She would sort out the speeding fines later. It would give her something to distract her when things got ugly around here.

Five minutes later, the sound of Natalie's motorbike roared through the ARC as Natalie raced around from the front entrance, and ended with a screech in the loading bay behind the medical unit. Natalie herself appeared almost instantly, ran through the Operations Area, grabbed something off a table and ran back again. Jess knew she would do everything she could to help the medics save Maria. She felt sorry for her. Natalie had been hit hard by the events of the last few weeks, and to lose Maria now, when they were so close to finding Wilder, just wouldn't be fair. But then again, life wasn't fair.

Fifteen minutes later there was a lot of shouting coming from Maria's office, and then every single medic she knew to be on the ARC's payroll filed out, the last one shutting the door behind him. Jess smiled to herself. Maria was in good hands now without all those clowns running around her. She heard one of them mutter to another that she didn't stand a chance, which only made her smile broaden. They didn't know how determined Lou Walker was...

Three hours. That was how long it took. Three hours for Maria's condition to stabilise enough for anyone to come out and tell Becker what was going on, how she was, or even if she stood a chance. Now, he sat curled on the sofa in Maria's office, letting the events of the day catch up with him and trying not to remember the last three hours too vividly. He failed.

The ambulance ride had been crazy; the medics on board, all five of them, hadn't been able to stop the bleeding. How could they? Wilder's bullet had lodged itself somewhere in Maria's body, so nothing was going to heal until they had taken it out, which they weren't even going to try and do in the back of a moving ambulance. Once back at the ARC, even more medics in black uniforms had arrived and began swarming around Maria like flies as soon as she had been delivered into the medical unit. Someone not in uniform had yelled at everyone to get out, and he had been guided out into Maria's office by Natalie, who had immediately gone straight back in again. So instead, Becker had stood in front of the window that looked through into the medical unit as the doctor bent over Maria, removing various things from the wound before washing it in a chemical that had at least ten syllables and stitching it up. All the while, Natalie ran around the room fetching things for him, and he kept his head bent over Maria the whole time, his eyebrows forming a frown that deepened as time went by. At that point, about two and a half hours in, Becker realised that he couldn't keep standing up anymore, so he had dropped onto the sofa. He couldn't see into the medical unit anymore, so curled up and began brooding. He probably would have stared a hole in the carpet if he had carried on for much longer.

Three hours, four minutes and nine seconds after arriving back in 2011, Becker felt someone drop onto the sofa next to him and looked up slowly at Maria's mystery doctor. He was leaning back on the sofa, eyes closed, one hand rubbing a something under his shirt. He looked tired, and in pain too, for that matter. Yet there was something familiar about him, as if Becker knew him from somewhere. Then it hit him.

The man sitting next to him was Lou Walker.

At first, Becker refused to believe it. His brain came up with a hundred different possibilities, ranging from 'He only looks like him' to 'This is all a dream,' before he finally accepted the fact that somehow, Lou wasn't actually dead. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. They hadn't been able to go back to him that day, and by the time they returned the next afternoon he had disappeared. At the time, they had assumed that Wilder had taken him, but apparently not. Lou looked older, as if he had aged a year for every day it had been since. It hadn't been that many, less than a week, if that, but Lou looked... Not necessarily older, but certainly more world-wizened. Becker supposed that getting shot in the chest would do that to someone.

"Lou?" Becker still needed confirmation. He would have loved to have just gone along with his theory that all this was just a dream and that he would wake up in a few minutes and everything would be ok, but the small part of his brain that hadn't shut down due to tiredness or emotional stress was telling him not to hope too hard.

"Mmmhmm?" Lou responded, not moving an inch. "Oh, right, yeah, the whole 'I-thought-you-had-died' thing. Don't bother going into it, Nat explained it earlier." He sat up slightly and opened his eyes, before getting comfortable so that he could see Becker and the door to the medical unit at the same time. "Cutting a very long and painful story short, Wilder missed. By missed, I don't mean that he missed me, I mean he missed just about every important part of my anatomy and I managed to wake up before I bled to death on the grass. Then it was a simple case of getting into the cottage, bandaging myself up, and making my way back here. You would be surprised how few taxi drivers will give you a lift if you're covered in blood. Can't say I blame them really."

"So how come you didn't get back until today?" Lou chuckled to himself. "The British Public are very sympathetic," he said sardonically. "Any random person walking along the street will either ignore the man in blood stained clothes leaning in a doorway, or will offer to take him to a hospital. Nobody thinks that said man wants to go somewhere else entirely. It's rather irritating, actually. So I end up, in my sleep I might add, being driven to a hospital the other side of the city, and have to practically escape to get back here. By which time my clothes had been washed and I could get a cab." Becker wasn't sure if it was the tone of voice or Lou's facial expression, but he found himself laughing. Real laughter, the kind that he hadn't been sure that he was capable of doing anymore. He hadn't realised until then just how much he had missed Lou. Regaining his senses a little, he asked his other most important question.

"How is she?" Lou's own smile faded as his eyes clouded over.

"She's... Stable," he said, after a long and encouraging pause. "There isn't anything else I can do at this point, so it's all on her now. She either makes it or she doesn't." Even as he said it, Lou hated himself for lying. The truth? The truth was that Maria was in no way, shape or form stable, in fact, her heart rate was so slow that Lou was amazed that her body was still functioning. But he didn't want Becker to know, or even suspect the truth. Not yet. He had enough to deal with watching her get shot in the first place. He looked at Becker to make sure he had heard him properly. "She's a strong woman, Ryan. Anyone else in her position would probably have given up by this point, but she hasn't, and there is no way in Hell that I am going to let her." Becker met Lou's gaze, a bond forming between them that ran deeper than friendship. Becker trusted Lou with Maria's life more than he trusted anyone else, mainly because he knew Lou would do everything he could think of to keep her alive. Lou had the same feelings for Maria that he did. Fair enough, they were directed more in a family way than a romantic one, but they were the same none the less.

"Listen, I would tell you to go home but I have a feeling you're not going to. There's a bathroom through there, have a shower, wind down and try and relax a bit, ok?" Lou gave Becker a serious look, trying to install at least some authority over him. Becker ruined it slightly by raising his eyebrows.

"Was that a hint?"

"Quite possibly. Go. Now. She isn't going anywhere." Becker sighed and uncurled himself from the sofa, slowly at first to stop his muscles cramping from being in that position for so long. He stood up and rolled his shoulders; they were stiff from being hunched over for the best part of an hour; and made his way over to the door Lou had indicated. Until then he had thought it was a closet. He paused, one hand on the door, and looked back at Lou. He didn't like to be out of immediate distance from Maria.

"Go!" Lou said forcefully, a knowing smile in his eyes. Becker shook his head in bewilderment and disappeared into the bathroom. As soon as the door shut behind him, however, Lou's smile vanished completely. He waited until he heard water running before getting up and going back into the medical wing.

"How is she?" he asked Natalie.

"No change. She started muttering to herself a few minutes back but I didn't make out anything coherent." Lou's heart sank. Those were not the words he had wanted to hear. He went across to Maria and looked down at her.. She looked so peaceful lying there, as if she had just dropped off for a quick snooze and would wake up again at any moment. The heart rate monitor beeping in his ear told him otherwise, though. The beeps, the beats of Maria's heart, were three whole seconds apart. Far too far apart. Lou felt Natalie's arm slide around his back and he put his around her as she leant against him. She sighed and he tried his best to comfort her without putting too fine a point on it. His mind was screaming at him to take the contact further but he didn't. It was no place for making first moves when your best friend is probably dying in front of you. Natalie broke the companionable silence first.

"What did you tell him?"

"That she is stable."

"And..?"

"And that was it," Natalie's arm dropped and she stepped backwards to look him in the face.

"Lou, we talked about this, he needs to know."

"I know, I know, and I will tell him, I just think that he has enough to deal with right now."

"So you think that not telling him will be better for him?"

"That is pretty much what I just said, yeah."

"No, Lou, it isn't,"

"Look Natalie, I would just love it if I didn't have him going catatonic on me as well as her being in a coma over there. I can't do everything, I'm not Superman, you know."

"I know, but he isn't going to go catatonic or whatever. Hell, he was at the front line in Afghanistan for three months, I think he knows how to handle a little emotional stress!" Natalie didn't even realise that she was shouting until Lou gave her a long, hard stare. It was his way of getting her to calm down. And it usually worked.

"You finished? Or is there something else you want to shout at me?"

"Oh, I'm sure I can come up with something. I won't though. For now."

"Thank you," Lou went over to the fridge in the far corner of the room and fished out a Budweiser. He stood leaning against the 6ft fridge/freezer and took two long draughts before turning back to Natalie.

"If it was you, and the person you loved more than anything else in the world had just been shot in front of you, would you be able to calmly accept the fact that, despite your best efforts, he might not survive?" Natalie stared at him for at least a minute, composing her answer. After a long and uncomfortable silence, she found it.

"Lou, I am going to say this once, and then I am going to go out and find me a Starbucks because the coffee around here sucks." she paused to let that sink in. "I have. I have watched the person I love more than anything else in the world get shot in front of my eyes, but I didn't have to wait to be told whether he would live or not. He died there and then, right in front of me. Now, I think that if I can handle that, I'm pretty sure that Ryan Becker can too." And with that she picked her bike helmet up from the table she had dropped it on earlier that afternoon and strode out of the back door, leaving Lou alone to contemplate her words. He leaned heavily against the fridge and took another draught from his beer, trying to figure out what she had been on about.

It took him a while to realise that she had been talking about him.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19~Enjoy the Silence**

Maria watched as the red-haired girl grabbed onto the hand rail as the bus spun around the corner, the last corner before her stop, and almost dropped her thick Human Biology textbook in her attempt to keep upright. She was always doing that on that corner. She really should have learnt by now. She said thank you to the driver and stepped off the bus just as the first flakes of winter snow began to fall, transforming the country lane she had just turned up into a magical pathway. The beauty of it was all lost on her, though. Maria recognised the girl. She was watching herself, aged seventeen, returning from home after her first year of medical school for the first time since she had run away. Maria knew how this scenario was going to play out: She would arrive at her home only to be turned away again by her father who had pretty much disowned her on the day she left. She tried to turn away from it; she had no desire to go through it again; but realised that she had no control over herself. She would have to watch and re-live.

Seventeen-year-old Maria arrived at the front gates of the mansion's grounds and waved cheerily to Old Man Smithers, the caretaker who had been doing that same job since before her father was even born. Smithers waved back and unlocked the gate, allowing it to swing open a fraction for Maria to slip inside. He told her that it was nice to have her home again after so long; he was never seeing enough of her these days. Maria just smiled and continued walking up the drive to the front door, where an impatient Lou was sitting astride one of the gargoyles on top of the eight-foot wall surrounding the inner gardens, trying not to shiver at the oncoming snow. Maria saw the seven-year-old instantly but pretended that she hadn't noticed, instead climbing up the steps to the extravagant oak front doors. With a yell, Lou sprinted up the steps, all thirty of them, and launched himself at Maria, who whirled around and caught him before he fell back down all thirty of them again. He was bubbling with excitement; he hadn't seen her in almost a year and was being 'driven crazy' by his foster parents. He pulled her down to sit on the third step from the top, the same as they had done every single day since Lou had started at school.

"You have GOT to take me with you next time," Lou began, not even bothering with a hello. "Joe and Cathy are driving me up the wall!" Maria laughed at her young friend's over exaggeration.

"And hello to you as well, how have you been while i was away?" Maria said with just a hint of sarcasm.

"I'm serious!" Lou cried, ignoring her completely, "They even bought a cat. A CAT! A big, round, white, fluffy CAT. I hate cats! All it does is sit on a windowsill and glower at me as if it has come up with a plan to kill me, which I bet it has, and it moults on my school trousers. Nowhere else, just on MY trousers. And then, a few months ago, it went out, got lost for a week and came back pregnant. And now there are SEVEN of them! They're like gremlins. Little cloud-like gremlins that cannot use a litter box and have HUGE social problems." Lou finished his rant, out of breath and panting slightly. Maria stared at him, trying very, VERY hard not to laugh. She failed miserably after about three seconds, and exploded into giggles. Lou glared at her for another three seconds before giving in and laughing as well, and the two of them spent a whole ten minutes on the third from top step with tears streaming down their faces. The memory ended, leaving Maria surrounded by whiteness. A never-ending whiteness that seemed to go on into forever and out the other side. She couldn't tell how far it went in each direction; there was just solid whiteness all around her. Before then, she hadn't been able to remember that part of that day. She only recalled going straight up the steps and into her father's study, only to stand in front of his desk talking for twenty minutes straight before she realised that he was ignoring her. Then she had left, met Lou on the front steps and gone back to his foster parent's house, all the while trying not to cry and keep up the pretence to Lou that nothing was wrong. She wondered why she had forgotten that short few minutes. Had her father's rejection been so crushing that she had forgotten the rest of it too? The good part that reminded her that she wasn't alone in the world? Whatever the reason, Maria didn't want to forget it again.

Maria sighed, the confusion of it all surprisingly overwhelming, and she looked around properly for something to take her mind off it. That was easier said than done, given that there was nothing, literally nothing, around her. Just the never-ending white void that hurt her eyes if she stared in one place for too long. It was then that she realised that she didn't actually know where she was. She tried to remember, but all she could come up with was being on the roof of that building. She concentrated on going step by step forwards through her memory; she and Ryan had been arguing, they had sat down to wait for the rest of the team to position themselves before they converged on Wilder, and then Connor and Abby had turned up, Wilder had anomaly-jumped behind them and... Oh, yeah. That. She had been shot. She still didn't know where exactly. So where was she now? Was she dead? She hoped not. Being dead would not be good. At all.

"You're not dead. At least, not yet." Maria jumped out of her skin and whirled around to find the source of the sudden voice. Finding no one behind her, she turned in a full circle and looked up and down before realising that there was no one there. She groaned inwardly. She had been enjoying the silence of this place; the last thing she needed was a voice in her head.

"Who are you?" was the first of many questions that had popped into her head.

"That isn't important," the voice echoed. Maria couldn't tell if it was male, female, young or old, it was just a voice.

"Where am I?" she asked it. She didn't shout this time. The loudness of her own voice was startling.

"You are in what I like to call the In-Between World. You are stuck halfway between life and death, and in the next few hours you have to make up your mind where you want to go."

"You make it sound like some kind of video game," Maria muttered. "Wait a second, why am I here? Can I see what's happening to me right now?" The voice sighed.

"Oh, so no time for pleasantries, then. Fine, Fine, I'll show you. I don't do this for many people you know so consider yourself lucky and be thankful that I'm in a good mood," Maria raised an eyebrow. So the voice in her head was just as sarcastic as she was. A space in front of her that Maria had assumed was just more never-ending whiteness swirled around and became a bird's-eye view of the ARC's medical wing. It didn't cast any shadows, which only made the whiteness around it even more disorientating. She saw herself, lying motionless on one of the beds, and Lou leaning against the fridge in the far corner, unsurprisingly with a beer in his hand.

"If I'm watching myself, and I'm not dead, why is Lou there?" Maria asked the voice, suspicion creeping into her tone. "I watched him be killed, he can't be there."

"No, you watched him get shot. He didn't die. He almost did, but he didn't." If the voice had had physical form, Maria would have hit it. Instead she turned back to the screen and watched as Becker entered the room, causing Lou to straighten up and a warning look flash across his face. He evidently didn't want him to be there. They started talking but Maria couldn't make out the words. They were too distant, as if she was hearing them from a long way away.

"You can't hear them very well," the voice spoke up, reading her mind, "because you are all the way up here and your ears are all the way down there.

You're not connected to them very well. Signal strength is low, so to speak."

"Thanks for that. Do you mind shutting up?"

"You're welcome," the voice muttered but, thankfully, did stop talking. Maria closed her eyes and listened, but she could only make out a few random words at best. She sighed and sat down; how she was able to do that when there was evidently no floor was against her; and stared at the screen in front of her.

She watched as Lou delved into the fridge and tossed another beer bottle across the room to Becker before sitting down heavily on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs at the foot of Maria's bed. She would never be able to figure out why people drank so much of that stuff. It was nice to have some occasionally when out with a few friends, sure, but Lou's obsession with it was completely beyond her comprehension. She watched Becker lean back against her heart-rate monitor and close his eyes, not even trying to hide his weariness from the day's events. Maria wished he would stop worrying about her just for a while and go home, just to get a few hours of sleep if anything else. She knew he never would, but she wished all the same. That was when she noticed it. The slow beeping that she had ignored before in her attempt to figure out the conversation, but now that she heard it, she knew it had been there all along. The beeps that were three whole seconds apart from each other that told anyone around her that her heart rate was dangerously low, even for someone lying in a coma doing nothing at all. Maria didn't need to check to know that it wasn't malfunctioning.

"You know..." the voice piped up.

"I thought I told you to shut up," Maria snapped, cutting it off.

"I'm only saying that..."

"And I'm pretty sure that I don't want to hear it,"

"Wow you're in a bad mood. Why is it that coma patients are always in such bad moods? It really is quite depressing, if you think about it."

"I'll be sure to get you counselling. Actually, I won't, because that would involve killing someone."

"Definitely in a bad mood."

"Are you deliberately annoying me or is it just a personality trait of yours?"

"Probably a personality trait."

"Fantastic. I feel so happy for you. Now that we have cleared that up, can you leave me alone?"

"Ok, fine, I'll leave you to your brooding and swan off somewhere else. If you are interested in leaving then give me a shout, but I'm going to remind you that you have... four hours left in your current condition before the only way is up. And i mean that literally."

"You mean before I die?"

"Precisely. Have fun now," and with that, the voice faded away and seemed to be gone completely, leaving Maria with a chill going down her spine. She had four hours left. Every time she was about to make a certain announcement that she wanted to go back, something stopped her. The knowledge that if she went back, what would she do? She would chase down Wilder, fine, but then what? Did she really have anything to go back to? She didn't know why, but Maria found herself seriously considering staying. The fact terrified her and turned her entire body cold. She didn't want to think about it anymore; she was too afraid of what she would decide; so instead she turned back to the image on the screen in front of her. She could still only hear faint murmurings of what Lou and Becker were saying, which was annoying, but she could tell by their facial expressions and body language that they were talking about her. She sat down again and made herself comfortable on the floor as she watched Natalie stride into the room through the back door, instantly getting Lou's attention. She gave him a purposeful stare and went straight through to the office, dropping her helmet down on a table with a clang that even Maria could hear. They had evidently been arguing. Lou stood up and, sharing a look with Becker, followed Natalie, leaving Becker alone in the room. Well, alone from his perspective anyway. He dropped his beer bottle onto the table next to him and folded his arms across his chest, his stare boring a hole in the opposite wall. He was still leaning against Maria's heart rate monitor. Maria watched as he started talking, out loud, embarrassed at first but the words flowing freely after a while. For the first few minutes, Maria was content just to sit and watch him, she couldn't hear him anyway, until he paused and rubbed his face, which was when Maria realised that what he was telling her was more than just the events of the day. What he was saying was personal and heartfelt, and Maria suddenly desperately wished that she could hear him. She closed her eyes and focused on nothing but the distant bubble of his voice, cutting out everything else, even the heart rate monitor's painfully slow beeping.

Eventually, she could make out a few words, and then a few more, and gradually, Becker's words became as clear as if he was standing right behind her. She smiled to herself, just a tiny smile, as she listened to the words that she knew he would never have said if he knew she was listening.

"...I probably should be grateful, shouldn't I, that it's you there and not me. I know that Wilder was aiming for me, and I know I should be thankful

That you took it for me, but I'm not. I would do anything to swap our places right now, Maria. I hate to see you like this, I can't stand it, and knowing that it should be me just makes it worse." Becker allowed himself a short pained laugh. "You remember when we first met?"

'Of course I remember,' Maria thought, answering his question even though he would never hear it. 'How could I forget?'

"I was half expecting you to be another one of those really self-important military officers, especially after the detailed analysis Lou gave me on the way over. But you weren't. You were completely different to what I expected, and you know what? I loved it. I loved the way you just took what life through at you and threw it straight back again, without a care for the consequences. I remember thinking that there weren't enough people in this world like that. I liked the idea of being able to talk to you again, I didn't know why at the time. Hell, the last thing i expected was all this happening. And even when I knew that it already had, that night when you kissed me, i couldn't quite believe it, you know? I kept telling myself not to hold onto it because it was all just a dream, some pain-induced dream like the ones you are undoubtedly having now. But I found myself listening less to my head and more to my heart as time went by, and when I had to leave, I can't remember ever feeling so... I guess empty is the only word for it." He stopped again, getting lost in the memory, and Maria realised that there were tears on her face. She knew exactly what he was talking about; she had felt exactly the same way.

"Afterwards I thought that I would never feel like that ever again, that there was nothing that could ever match how leaving you felt. Until they told me you had been killed. I thought I would never feel anything ever again after that. So, of course, when you showed up here, I... I didn't know what I thought, I just knew at that moment that I was never going to let you out of my sight again. I promised myself that nothing would ever happen to you." Maria watched as a single tear rolled down his face. She didn't feel right, sitting there and watching him. She was overcome with the need to put her arms around him, tell him that everything was ok and protect him from the world, just as he had done for her so many times. But she couldn't. And she hated it.

"I need you to be ok, Maria, you have to be. There are so many things I wanted to tell you, things I wanted us to do. I couldn't live with myself if you died because I couldn't protect you. I don't know how..." Becker trailed off as emotion made his voice too thick to continue and as she watched the tears stream down his face, she knew why she had to go back. Becker needed her just as much as she needed him. She had just never seen it because she had been too focused on her own problems to notice it.

"Becker..." Jess's voice floated in through the doorway and Becker quickly wiped his face. "Lester and Burton want to see you about a mission report or something. I can tell them to let it wait for tomorrow if you don't..."

"No, it's fine. I'll be there in a minute." Jess nodded and left, and Becker took a deep breath before wiping all trace of his emotional outburst off his face. He leant over Maria and gently moved a lock of hair off her face before kissing her on the forehead, contacts that Maria could have sworn she actually felt. He straightened up and sighed again before leaving the room, and Maria also stood up, very aware of what she needed to do as soon as she woke up back at the ARC. She turned away from the screen.

"Are you there?" she asked the whiteness.

"Of course," the voice said. "And no, I wasn't listening, before you get all territorial on me."

"I want to go back now," Maria didn't want to play games with it, not anymore. She tried to make that as obvious as possible from her tone.

"I thought you might," the voice said, sobering up a little. "Right. Just sit down. Actually, it would be better if you lay down, seeing as you're doing that down there and it might be a bit disorientating otherwise." Maria did as it said. "Now close your eyes, and enjoy the ride..."

Maria opened her eyes to a brilliant white glare, and at first she thought that it hadn't worked and that she was back in the In-Between World. Then, after some rapid blinking and about three minutes, her eyes adjusted. She was back in the ARC, and Lou had evidently forgotten what she had told him about turning off the lights when dealing with coma patients. She thought she could forgive him that, though.

Just as her vision was clearing completely, Lou himself ran into the room, closely followed by Natalie. Relief and joy were written in capitals all over both their faces, and Maria smiled.

"We thought we'd lost you there," Lou said, his voice shaking slightly.

"It's good to be back," Maria told them. And she wasn't lying. It was brilliant.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20~Settling In**

As soon as they stepped out of the anomaly, Anton and Valerie found themselves in a completely new world, but didn't have the time to admire it in the way they would have liked. First, Maria needed to get medical attention, and fast. Valerie pulled off her helmet and stepped clear of the anomaly, leaving it unobstructed for Becker. Looking around the car repair garage that the anomaly had opened up to, she saw at least twenty people charging around like ants, each hurrying to be in their specific place in response to Connor's orders. There was one, a girl barely out of her teenage years, who stood stock-still in the middle of it all, completely oblivious to everything except the anomaly and the people coming through it. She stared past Valerie straight at the anomaly, her face a mask of anger and pain. Valerie wondered who the girl was. No longer staring at the anomaly but at the space in front of it now, the girl hastily moved out of the way as an ambulance screeched to a halt in the middle of the garage just as Becker entered Valerie's field of vision, still carrying Maria. It had been a whole hour since the old man had shot her, and by the looks of it, her wound was still bleeding. Valerie would have been surprised if she was still alive.

She felt Anton move up behind her and stand directly behind her right shoulder and watched the ambulance pull out of the garage, sirens blazing. After a moment, the teenage girl ran out after it before the sound of a motorcycle engine roared into life and quickly faded into the distance. Valerie began to wonder what would happen to them now, and the answers she thought of weren't particularly pleasant. Anton's hand touched the spot precisely in between her shoulders and the small of her back as if he had read her mind. Over the years they had developed this silent language, and that touch told her that no matter what happened to them, they would always be together and he would always have her back. She looked up at him, reassured, to tell him that the same thing applied from her to him, but noticed something in his eyes that she couldn't put a name to. Was it fear? Resignation? Anton was never afraid, or at least he never showed it, so its presence there completely flattened all the reassurance Valerie had in her. What did he have to be afraid of, anyway? And, more importantly, what wasn't he telling her? He must have noticed her reaction because whatever it was she had seen in the one eye that wasn't obstructed by his fringe vanished, and his gaze flickered to something behind her. Slowly, still contemplating what expression it was that she had seen, she turned to follow his gaze to see Abby walking towards them. She stopped in front of them, smiled wearily and was about to say something, when Anton cut her off.

"Don't tell me, someone who thinks he is more important than he actually is wants to 'run a few tests,' and we're not going to be allowed to speak to anyone until it's been done." Valerie felt her blood go cold at the thought. She didn't like needles. Never had.

"I wasn't going to put it that way but yes. More or less."

"I thought so." When Valerie gave him a puzzled look, asking how the heck he had known, he just shrugged. "I've seen the movies too," he muttered. Valerie smirked. If they were thinking of the same movies then she was tempted to turn and run straight back through the anomaly.

"Look, I'll put in a word with Lester to get Burton to be nice, but there isn't really much I can do. I'm sorry." Valerie nodded and she felt Anton tense behind her. He didn't like men in suits telling him what to do. He didn't like anyone telling him what to do, for that matter.

"I have to take you back to the ARC anyway, regardless of what will happen when we get there. This way." Abby gestured towards a row of silver pickups parked outside the garage and began walking towards them, muttering into her earpiece as she did so. Valerie didn't catch what she said. She felt Anton's had slide into her own as they followed Abby over to the pickups, but the reassured feeling she usually got from it never came. She didn't think that Anton could stop what was coming to them, and that thought alone frightened her.

The journey to the ARC was uncomfortably silent and accompanied by a grumpy-looking man carrying an EMD rifle. Valerie was instantly wary; guns were another of the many things she didn't like. She felt Anton watching her throughout the entire journey, but kept her eyes firmly on the trees and buildings flashing past. The last thing she wanted was him to know just how terrified she was slowly becoming.

Eventually, half an hour of painful silence later, Abby drove through a set of iron security gates and pulled up outside a building that Valerie would easily have mistaken for another office block. She got out of the car, and immediately more men with EMD rifles came charging out of the building towards them. She turned to Abby to ask what was going on, but the expression on her face blatantly said that this was not part of the plan. She strode over to the man who had been in the car with them and started having what could only be described as a heated discussion. She tried to catch what they were saying but could only pick up snippets, but they were enough to give Valerie the gist of the conversation. Someone named Burton wanted to lock her and Anton away so that no one here was in any danger. And probably so that he could do some experiments on them to see how much the human race had evolved in seventy years. Anton had hit the proverbial nail on the head with that one. His voice in her ear made her jump.

"You ok?" She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

"Yeah," She didn't sound very convincing, even to herself. Anton stared pointedly at her and she just knew that he had an eyebrow raised under that fringe of his.

"I'm really sorry, guys, but there has been an ever so slight miss-communication," Abby began, coming towards them from her argument with the soldier. Valerie heard Anton make disbelieving noises behind her.

"'Ever so slight' meaning 'monumental,' right?" Abby shot him a look.

"Well, maybe, but I'm fairly certain, if not positive, that Lester has no idea what's going on, so the only thing we can do is go find out," she turned to follow the security team into the ARC but only got halfway round before Anton's calm voice stopped her.

"We stay together," he announced. "No matter what's going to happen, we stay together." It wasn't a question, not an "oh yeah and by the way can we..?" that most people would have issued at that point, it was a statement, and Anton's heavily accented voice blatantly told the world that there would be Hell to pay if he didn't get what he wanted. Abby didn't turn back to face him, just looked over her shoulder and nodded once before continuing on her way into the ARC. Anton held out his hand to Valerie.

"Shall we?" he asked quietly. She took his hand and the two of them followed Abby into the ARC.

"Jess, a word?" Lester's voice carried across the ARC's Operations Area, causing Jess to jump. She turned in her seat to see her boss standing expectantly in front of the door to his office. She sighed inwardly. This 'word' was evidently going to be longer than Jess had hoped. She made her way up to his office and took in Lester's serious face; the face he reserved specifically for when he was dealing with or talking about Phillip Burton. Jess sighed inwardly. Lester's 'Phillip Discussions' were invariably long and trying, and she wasn't in the mood for it. She was far too excited about the people from the future that Abby was bringing back to the ARC, if they weren't already here. Lester shut the door behind her and pointed to the chair in front of her before moving around the desk to his own. Jess sat and watched as he leaned back in his chair, the way he always did when he wanted something done. Which was all the time.

"You know that the team found two people in the future and are bringing them back here," It was a statement, not a question, but Jess nodded anyway. "Have you told Phillip of this yet?" This time Jess shook her head.

"No, he isn't due in for another fifteen minutes; I was going to tell him then."

"Good. Don't." Jess blinked, not sure if she had heard him right.

"But... I thought that both of you had to have a say in major decisions that went on around here." she spoke hesitantly, and only realised halfway through that Lester knew this very well. In fact, it was precisely what he was trying to avoid.

"Jess, Phillip is a scientist, not a diplomat. If he finds out about these people, and specifically where they are from, he won't see them as people but more as..." Lester paused as he chose the right word.

"Specimens?" Jess offered.

"Precisely. I don't particularly want to know what he might do if he knows the truth about them, and quite frankly it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it." as if to emphasise his point, Lester shuddered. He leaned forwards in his chair and, even though there wasn't anyone else in the room, he lowered his voice. "Do we understand each other?" Jess didn't want to lie to Phillip, but also didn't want her inaction to cause these people pain. She decided that the former option wouldn't weigh so heavily on her conscience and nodded to Lester.

"He won't know a thing,"

"Good. If he asks, tell him they're Home Office representatives staying for a week or so to assess the situation we have going on here or something. I don't know, Jess, just make it up as you go along, just don't give him any reason to suspect anything."

"Yeah, thanks, I got that. How long is it going to take you to make them officially exist in this time?"

"The paperwork should be filed away by the end of the week. After that it's just how long they take to mail out passports and birth certificates." Jess sighed inwardly. Today was Monday. Was that just something that Government Officials said to make them seem like they actually had a clue? Because it sure as heck didn't work.

"Don't tell Phillip, make it last the week. Got it." Jess hoped her smile looked genuine enough. "I don't suppose you have organised rooms for them downstairs, have you? They should be here any minute." Lester smiled.

"Three and four, East Corridor. They even have an inter-connecting door,"

"You sound so pleased with yourself," Jess said, standing up. Lester shot her a look as he opened his office door for her.

"Front entrance. Now." he ordered. Jess grinned, knowing that she had just scored major points. She and Lester made their way through the Operations Area and into the main corridor, neither daring to say anything for fear that the other had a better and more sarcastic remark up their sleeve. Jess was about to burst out laughing from the tension when the doors at the end of the corridor burst open and the unmistakeable sound of the ARC's security team came echoing down the polished floor. Jess rolled her eyes. They really did not know how to be subtle. Abby and two people Jess didn't know, a man and a woman, were in the middle of the throng of black uniforms and EMD rifles, and the look on Abby's face told Jess that unless the security team were gotten rid of, she was going to hit something. As Lester started having a go at the Sargent of the security team, Jess turned her attention to Abby's companions. The man was very tall. He had to be at least six feet three and was noticeably taller than everyone else in the room. His raven black hair was cut short, apart from a fringe that covered his left eye and a significant portion of his face around it. She wondered if that was merely how he liked it, or if he had something to hide; something that he couldn't bear everyone else he met to see. She had a feeling she wouldn't find out. The man's eyes were cold, emotionless and hard, much like the rest of his features, and he seemed to have mastered the ability to control his outward reactions and only let everyone else see what he wanted them to see. He was giving away one thing though. The way he walked half a step behind the woman, who was holding onto his hand as if her life depended on it, told Jess that he wouldn't let anything come between the two of them. It was quite intimidating, actually.

The woman, on the other hand, was almost completely different. She was evidently trying to copy the man's emotionless face, and actually came close to succeeding. Except for her eyes. Her ice-blue eyes were huge with fear, and her knuckles were white where she was grasping the man's hand. She was scared, terrified even, but was trying desperately hard not to let it show. Sympathy welled up inside Jess. At that moment, she promised herself that if there was anything at all she could do to make them feel welcome she would do it, no matter who she had to lie to.

Jess tuned back into what was going on around her as soon as that thought crossed her mind, just in time to hear Lester end his conversation with the now very white-faced Sargent.

"...and I believe your role in all of this is over, thank you Sargent. You and your men can go now," Lester said, in a tone that implied he was going to get cross if that didn't happen.

"But Sir, protocol states that anyone who is brought in from another time must be..." The Sargent didn't get very far before Lester cut him off.

"Tell me, did anyone actually authorise you to go charging out there, swarm around my guests, and try to detain them until Phillip gets his act together? No, I didn't think so. Now, seeing as Phillip isn't here, what I say goes, and I say that you are no longer needed." The Sargent looked at Lester like he had just punched him. He stood dumbfounded for a few seconds before nodding once and signalling to his men. At his command, they all filed meekly into the Armoury, their expressions making Jess put a hand over her mouth to stop herself laughing. Suddenly resembling some kind of pheasant with the look of self-satisfaction he gave himself, Lester turned back to Abby's companions who, Jess was pleased to note, were looking slightly more relaxed now that the soldiers were gone.

"James Lester, Home Office," Lester stretched out his hand, which the man shook, but warily. The woman just nodded, not letting go of the man's other hand. "And this is Jess Parker, our Field Co-ordinator," Jess smiled and nodded at the pair, and when it seemed fairly obvious that neither were going to say anything, Lester continued. "I would like to welcome you to the Anomaly Research Centre and must apologise for your escort, it wasn't part of the plan." Once again, neither of Abby's companions said a word, which Lester merely took in his stride. "If you would follow Jess, she will escort you to your suites, and I will see you tomorrow to iron out a few legal creases," And with that extremely terrible use of metaphor, Lester took one last look at the two new arrivals and turned and made his way back down the main corridor, leaving Jess and Abby alone with the two people from the future.

"Well that was unexpected," Abby announced after a considerable silence. Jess sent her an 'it's-a-long-story-I'll-tell-you-later' look before turning and putting on her best business-like smile.

"You must be exhausted, follow me, I'll show you to your suites," She turned and started down the corridor for the stairwell that lead to the lower levels, and was relieved to hear the future people following after her without hesitation. As they descended the stairs, Jess heard them whispering to each other so quietly that she couldn't make out the words, even though she was only a few paces in front of them, and she soon stopped trying to; it was none of her business anyway.

They arrived outside Guest Suite 3, as the elaborate plaque on the front door proclaimed, and Jess opened the door to reveal the spacious and reasonably well decorated living area that the ARC offered its occasional guests.

"Here we are," Jess said brightly, "The door on the left is the bedroom, the one opposite is the bathroom, the kitchenette is over there, the fridge should have food in it already but don't hold me to that, things rarely get done very quickly around here," Jess went over to the fourth door in the room, the one that lead to the next suite, quietly pleased with herself for getting a smile out of the scared-looking young woman.

"And it's exactly the same layout through here. Well, apart from the fact that the TV doesn't work because for some reason the security team were using this floor for an EMD training course a few days ago and someone shot it. It hasn't worked since, no matter what anyone does to it," Both Abby and the woman laughed at that, and even the man allowed himself a smile. It didn't quite reach his eyes, but it was a start at least.

"If you need anything, just hold down zero on the phone and you'll get straight through to me. Everything should already be in place but there is always a chance that it isn't." With one last look at the pair of them, Jess concluded, "I'll just leave you to it then," she smiled cheerily and made her way towards the door.

"Thank you," The man's heavily accented voice caught Jess by surprise; it was the first thing either of them had said. Jess smiled again and slipped out the door, allowing it to click shut by itself behind her.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21~Familiarities**

Thirteen hours, twenty minutes and fifteen seconds later, Anton's eyes flickered open and for a moment he didn't have the slightest clue where he was. There was no light whatsoever in the room he was in and he couldn't see a thing, but he could hear steady breathing right beside him. Recognition flickered through his mind: Valerie. He rolled his eyes into the darkness; she had been doing that ever since they were kids, crawling into his bed in the middle of the night because she was scared or needed comforting. Running through the events of the day before, Anton sat up. They were in the ARC, and there was no light in the room because, as they were two stories underground, there were no windows. Pushing aside the claustrophobia that crept through him at this thought, and being careful not to wake Valerie, he slid out of bed. He remembered from the night before that the door to the living area was in front of him and to the left a bit, and he actually managed to get to it without tripping over anything or walking into any furniture. He closed the door softly behind him and felt around for the light switch which he then flipped on. Raising one hand against to shield his eyes from the intense artificial whiteness they produced, Anton made his way to the bathroom, deciding he needed a shower, and thought he might as well have a look at the TV while he was here and had nothing else to do. He had a feeling that the ARC's technical geniuses had nothing on him, and that wasn't just him flattering himself. He looked around for the clock in the living room and noticed that it was just coming up to twelve o'clock. He sighed inwardly. He had been asleep for over thirteen hours. He hadn't meant to sleep that heavily for that long. Looking around to get a better idea of the room, he noticed a pile of clothes and a handwritten note on the coffee table. It was from Jess. 'Hope you slept well. I'll come by at half one to go through the plan.' Half one. That gave him an hour and a half to shower and, by the noises his stomach was making, eat something. Plenty of time. Going by instinct, Anton decided to wait until the bathroom lights had actually turned on before going in and getting himself blinded again, so he was able to take in the spacious bathroom and marble surfaces, the likes of which he had only ever seen in movies filmed in really posh hotels. He also noticed that the shower took up most of it. Anton had to hand it to whoever had drawn up the plans for this place. They sure did know how to treat their guests.

Half an hour later, after what could have been the longest and hottest shower he had ever had in all twenty seven years of his life, Anton emerged from the bathroom dressed in the ARC's finest polyester. The first thing he noticed was that the door between his and Valerie's living rooms was open and he could hear the distinct sound of Music Television coming from hers. He could also hear the other shower running, so figured she would be in there for a while. Before sorting out the protestations his stomach was making at him, he wanted to find a washing machine, mainly so that he could change back into his jeans as soon as practicable. He liked his jeans. He's had them since he was about seventeen and they had pretty much all the signs of wear and tear that anyone could think of, and maybe a few more after that. Paint, grass stains, holes, solder scorch marks, there was even silver nail varnish in them somewhere, but how that had got there he had no idea. He found the washing machine under one of the many kitchen counters and the first thing that went through his mind that it had a lot fewer settings and buttons on it than he was used to. He mentally kicked himself; of course it did. He was currently fifty years before he had even been born. He had to remember that, and that technology would be considerably less advanced than what he was used to dealing with, so don't go insulting what was probably state-of-the-art stuff.

He hit the switch on the washing machine that sent his jeans on a twenty-minute spin cycle and stood up. He turned around to go through into Valerie's room only to find Valerie herself standing directly behind him with a mischievous look on her face which was quickly replaced with big-eyed innocence. He raised an eyebrow questioningly and continued to stare at her until she burst into giggles, causing him to grin too. She practically fell against him as her laughter dried up and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug that he instantly returned.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"Well, I was trying to sneak up on you but once again you turned around right when I was about to, so it didn't really work,"

"Sometimes I get the impression that you are in fact seven, not twenty five, you know that?"

"I do now," she said cheerily, detaching herself from him and skipping off through the door between their rooms. Anton followed her, sighing inwardly and wondering how she had managed to keep the mentality of a child after all this time. The second he stepped through the door she bombarded him with another hug, this one completely devoid of laughter. He was instantly concerned.

"You ok?" he asked. There was a significant pause before she answered.

"I think so. Just wierded out a little," Anton tightened his embrace and looked down at her, something that wasn't difficult considering how much taller than her he was.

"You know I won't let anything happen to you," he almost whispered.

"I know. But while you're protecting me, who's protecting you?" she whispered back, staring up at him with her ice-blue eyes brimming over with more emotions than Anton thought he was capable of feeling anymore.

"I think I can look after myself too," he told her. And although it was true, he would always put Valerie first, no matter the situation or consequences. That was something Anton had promised himself years and years ago, right after... He refused to let himself think about it. That was one part of his life he just wanted to forget, but he knew he never would. He still had the scars and they would never fade. Valerie's expression changed as he brought himself back to the present, everything besides concern filtering out of them.

"You're thinking about that night, aren't you?" Anton turned away from her and rubbed at his eyes. The last thing he wanted was to get all emotional.

"Yeah," he said, after a considerable pause.

"It wasn't your fault, Anton," Valerie said, her voice only just reaching him through his attempt at blocking out the memory. He said nothing, didn't even turn around. He didn't want to see the concern and sympathy she was undoubtedly aiming at him. He felt her hand on his shoulder and turned, trying to hide the pain in his eyes. He didn't think it fooled her; she knew him too well. She didn't waste her breath talking, instead just wrapped her arms around him and held him close. He gently pulled her arms down and she stared at him, her expression brimming over with concern.

"You can't ignore it forever," she whispered.

"I can try," he said, and turned away from her again so that she wouldn't see the single tear that ran down his face. He heard her sigh with impatience.

"You are impossible," she announced, and he was grateful that she wasn't going to dwell on it any longer. He smiled to himself and turned back to her, just as she collapsed backwards over the arm of the sofa. She straightened up almost immediately, somehow managing to pull herself back up so that she was sitting on the sofa arm once again.

"I'm hungry," she announced. Anton gave her a look.

"And what exactly would you like me to do about that?" he said sardonically, knowing exactly what she wanted. Her eyes widened and she put on the big-eyed-puppy-dog look that she always used when she wanted something from him.

"Could you make me a sandwich please?" She asked in the most innocent tone of voice she had, that she saved specially for these kinds of occasions. Anton tried to stare her down and tell her that she was perfectly capable of making her own food, but he had never been able to resist that face. He let out a sigh and glowered at her.

"Fine. What do you want?" Valerie's expression changed from pleading to ecstatic in less than a second and she nearly fell off her perch doing her victory dance.

"My usual, if you would be so kind," Anton rolled his eyes and made his way over to the kitchenette, while Valerie made herself extremely useful by turning up the volume on MTV. Anton stuck his head out of the freezer to give her a disbelieving look, before returning again with a packet of bacon.

"What?" Valerie shot him a questioning look.

"I thought you said that chart music in this decade was actually good?" Anton didn't turn round but spoke into the fridge.

"Hey, this is good. And anyway, what you're thinking about won't happen until 2013. Then it gets really good,"

"That rather depends upon your opinion," Anton muttered.

"I heard that," Valerie glowered. "And anyway, you liked my techno stuff,"

"No, I tolerated your techno stuff. That doesn't mean I actually like it. This, on the other hand, is just synthesised noise," Valerie's glower intensified until she threw herself backwards onto the sofa.

"Anton Ivanov, you have no soul," she declared. Anton, completely unphased, only laughed.

"Which you have been telling me since I was ten years old," he countered. Which was true, actually. She had. Valerie made a sound that could really only be described as a harrumph and turned her full attention back to the television and Anton, still laughing to himself, turned the gas cooker on. Valerie, who seemed unable to stay in the same mood for more than thirty seconds, sat up again.

"Oh come on, you are NOT cooking that in here," Valerie exclaimed upon seeing the packet of bacon.

"I am, and you are going to have to put up with it. I haven't had bacon since I was eleven," Anton declared.

"Don't lie; you had some the other day!"

"That wasn't bacon, that was the plastic imitation stuff that was produced because the Predators had killed all the pigs. THIS, my dear Valerie, is real bacon, and I am going to eat it." Anton grinned at her, clearly enjoying himself.

"You sicken me," she told him through another glare.

"You are just jealous because you, being a vegetarian, cannot appreciate the wonders of bacon," Anton opened the packet and carefully placed a strip of bacon onto the frying pan that he had somehow managed to find, filling the air with an almost deafening sizzle and a smell that made Valerie stick a pillow in front of her nose. She continued to glower at him for a whole fifteen minutes while he cooked his bacon, toasted bread for his sandwich, and found a bottle of tomato ketchup.

"Okay, that is disgusting," Valerie decided, her voice muffled through the pillow. Anton looked up from his creation and gave her a look.

"Oh, and cheese and mayonnaise isn't?"

"No, actually, it's not, and if you ever manned up and tried it, you would think so too."

"I have, and it really is not. Now stop whining before I decide that now that I have my beautiful bacon-ketchup sandwich that you can go and make your own." His declaration made Valerie's glower intensify but she did indeed stop whining, and watched with growing anticipation as Anton, Sandwich-Making Genius that he was, applied insane amounts of mayonnaise and cheese to another slice of bread. He even cut the finished article in half, triangularly of course, in that way he had that meant that nothing escaped the edges of the sandwich, no matter how overflowing it was. He picked up the two plates and made his way over to the sofa, where he handed her one with a flourish.

"Ma'am, your luncheon is served," he announced, doing a fairly decent British accent. She was so very tempted to hit him but restrained herself; after all, he had just made her lunch. She beamed up at him as he sat heavily down next to her, and was about to take a bite out of her expertly Anton-made sandwich, when there was a knock on the door.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22~Reorientation**

Lou couldn't decide whether it was the loud crash that woke him up, or the string of expletives that followed after it. Realising that he couldn't get back to sleep until he found out what it was, he grudgingly pulled himself out of the chair he had fallen asleep in, rubbing the side of his neck where it had started aching in his sleep. He stumbled through to Maria's office to find Maria herself picking a pile of ring binders off the floor, and vaguely clocked the shelving unit that had fallen over right into the middle of the room. Maria hadn't noticed him, so he left her to it and began to trudge back to his chair, when a sudden realisation jolted all weariness out of his system. He turned and raced back through the door, catching his shoulder on the doorframe on the way.

"Hang on, what are you doing?" he demanded.

"Good morning to you too, and yes, it is still morning, although you've been asleep for years," Maria looked up at him and gave him her best sarcastic look. "And the shelves fell over, causing all of these lovely folders to fall onto the floor. Sorry if it woke you up," She straightened up and pulled the shelving unit up with her, before starting to line the folders up in it once again. Lou shook his head in exasperation.

"No, I mean, what are you even doing up in the first place? You are supposed to be in bed," He tried for a serious 'I'm-your-doctor-and-I-know-what's-best-for-you' look but Maria merely laughed.

"Oh please, and lie there all day, by myself, without even a good book to read? Not likely. So instead I decided to thin down my To-Do pile. I even found the post-it, which proves just how brilliant and organised I am." Lou sighed and rubbed his head, trying to kill the light but still irritating hangover headache that was slowly creeping up on him after the four beers he had had last night to keep him awake. Here he was, concerned for her wellbeing, and all she was worrying about was finding the post-it note that had once been the label for her To-Do pile of paperwork on her desk until she had stopped bothering to move it and just dumped things on top. She really was unbelievable sometimes.

"You really shouldn't be moving around so much yet," he said wearily. His argument was only half-hearted; he knew she wouldn't do what he told her.

"I know, but I was bored, and I promise I'm being careful," she declared. "And anyway, I really needed to thin that pile down. There's stuff over here from the last Head of Medical they had here." Maria pushed the last of the ring binders onto the shelf and slowly backed away, making sure it wouldn't fall over again. When it stayed in place, she grinned with satisfaction and turned back to Lou.

"So anyway, why has everyone taken a rain-check? I thought I'd wake up to the whole 'Yippee you're better now, let's get back to work' thing that I seem to be so used to waking up to,"

"Nope, Lester called an off-day. It seems that pretty much everyone's shattered, three of us are still recovering from bullet wounds and Lester himself has his hands full with legal documents for Anton and Valerie, so no one is actually doing anything today. Well, nothing to do with chasing Wilder anyway. If an anomaly springs up then we're back to the whole No Rest for the Wicked regime." Lou turned and fished around in one of the cabinets for a Paracetamol to try and at least take the edge off his headache, only to find Maria already holding out two and a glass of water to him.

"I figured you might be after one of these, given the obscene amount of beer you were drinking last night," There was no hiding the disapproval in her voice but Lou had given up caring about what she thought of his habits a long time ago.

"How did you know?"

"Because last time I checked, and when you were still supposedly dead, there were seven bottles in that fridge. Now there are only two. Seriously Lou, five in one night? You are going to do yourself some serious damage if you keep that up,"

"Four. Becker had one. And anyway, I had to keep myself awake somehow,"

"Do you know why they invented things like Red Bull and caffeine pills? Or even, seeing as I shouldn't actually be encouraging you to have that stuff, coffee?" Lou merely grumbled and downed the Paracetamols. That done, he attempted to change the subject and put Maria back in a good mood.

"Did you have a shower yet?"

"No. I was going to but I don't have any clean clothes, so that's sort of pointless,"

"I asked Natalie to bring you some," Lou sounded oddly self-satisfied at his excellent display of initiative. Maria stared at him hard, as if her gaze was going to read his mind, and in the silence that followed Lou realised with a sickening jolt how close she had come to not coming back at all. The thought almost made him cry. All of a sudden he wasn't irritated with her lack of care for her personal wellbeing, and didn't even mind that she was nagging him again, he was just glad that she was still around to nag. He smiled tentatively at her and her expression softened considerably, before they did something that they very rarely did. Lou wrapped his arms around her shoulders and she hugged him back, and they stood in her office held tight in an embrace that only ever surfaced on special occasions.

Lou broke the hug first with an awkward shift of his body weight; he had never really been the hugging type; and Maria dropped her own arms and took a half-step back. She stared him in the face with nothing but sincerity written on her features.

"You did a good job with this," she tapped her side where Wilder's bullet had lodged itself just hours before. "And I'm fine now. So thank you," Lou nodded once, appreciating her positive comments a lot more than he let show.

"Just don't tear it open again. I could do with not having to stitch you back together more than once in a week, thank you very much," Lou let the grin forming on his face seep into his voice and Maria grinned back. She was about to throw another clever remark back at him when the sound of a motorbike rumbled into their hearing range, before screeching to a halt in the ARC's loading bay.

"Someone's in a hurry," Maria muttered, mentally noting the guarded expression that had crossed Lou's face. She would ask him what happened between them later, but right now she was looking forward to the prospect of a shower. Maria tried very hard not to make mental death threats at Natalie if she hadn't brought her some new clothes and, more importantly, underwear. She failed rather dramatically and had to actually control herself so that she didn't say any of them out loud. As if on cue, Natalie strode into the medical bay and, upon noticing Maria's empty bed, through to the office, a plastic carrier bag in hand. With an exclamation that sounded like a cat falling off a wall, Natalie practically threw herself at her aunt, causing Maria to stagger and nearly fall over. Natalie instantly began babbling about all sorts, how worried she had been, how glad she was that Maria was fine, how relieved everyone else would be now that she was OK; not once did she say the word 'we,' which made Maria suspect that she and Lou had done some major arguing while she had been out. She interrupted Natalie's river of words with a seemingly irrelevant question.

"Is that my shirt?" Natalie stared at her like she was trying to catch flies before looking down at it.

"No, at least, I don't think so, why?"

"It looks like my shirt,"

"It was in my wardrobe,"

"I happen to like that shirt. If anything happens to it, I will make you replace it." Natalie was about to snap back at her to stop being so judgemental when she saw the humour in Maria's eyes and smiled too, although it wasn't as easy-coming as her smiles usually were.

"Oh, that reminds me, here," Natalie tossed Maria the carrier bag and Maria nearly squealed in delight at the contents. they were all her favourite clothes: the light pink and pale green shirt that she had found in a sale at Jigsaw and been attached to ever since, her very comfy M&S jeans and her Jack Wills hoodie that matched her Converses in the exact shade of purple, yet still went very nicely with the shirt. Natalie had even remembered clean underwear, and Maria gave her niece a thank you hug before practically running into the bathroom. She hadn't had a shower in ages, and the thought of waiting any longer was positively dismal.

It was a whole forty five minutes before Maria emerged from the bathroom, squeaky clean and feeling at least three times more cheerful than she had been beforehand. She made her way through her office to the medical bay, still towelling her hair dry and completely engrossed in her own thoughts, so she didn't see the person who came into her office from the rest of the ARC until she was practically standing right next to him. As soon as the jeans he was wearing came into her field of vision she nearly jumped out of her skin, and turned to look up at him with a smile already written on her face, straight into Ryan Becker's beautiful brown eyes. Surprise flickered through her expression, mainly because due to the absence of uniform she had written him off the list of possible visitors the second she had seen him. She realised instantly that he hadn't slept last night, at all, and had probably only come in so late so that Lou wouldn't send him home again to rest some more. Every single word that he had said while she was unconscious raced through her mind, and she reached up to wrap her arms around him, just at the same time that he did the same. She held him close and tried very hard not to start crying as she remembered her promise that she would protect him from the world, just as he had done her.

"Maria," he whispered her name, as if to make sure she was actually there and he wasn't imagining things, and she laced her fingers into his hair, holding him against her in an attempt to stop time itself so that they could be together longer. Her tears spilled over as a feeling that she could only describe as melted butter trickling through her veins began to seep through her entire body. Becker reached up to pull her hands down so that he could look into her eyes, and she saw that his were wet with tears too. He brushed hers away with his thumb and cupped her face in his hands, resting his forehead against hers and stared into her endless green eyes like they would provide them both eternal life if he kept it up for long enough. The world could have been ending around them and all either of them would have been aware of was each other, content just to stare into each other's eyes as they let Maria's recent brush with death wash away into the past, each one knowing that the other was safe.

Without any warning, Becker leaned into Maria and their lips met in a kiss that sent sparks flying inside Maria's soul, and she ran her hands through his thick hair again, trying to make their touch last as long as possible. She didn't want to ever let him go, but he ended the kiss as suddenly as he had started it. Both of them were breathing heavily as they broke apart, but although Becker had stopped kissing her, they remained dangerously close to each other.

"Don't ever do that again," he whispered, and Maria detected the pain in his voice.

"What?"

"That," Although he was speaking normally, the sudden contrast from the whisper made Maria flinch. "You nearly died, Maria, that's what I mean. Promise me you will never do it again,"

"I didn't do it deliberately, you know," Maria made sure the teasing note was very obvious in her voice.

"No, I..." Becker's words were becoming even more pained as he tried to tell her. "That bullet, it was aiming for me. You took it but I..." He stopped again and let out a breath, not being able to finish his sentence. He didn't have to. Maria had heard him say it before. "If you died because of me I don't know what I would have..." His voice, which had been rapidly growing in volume over the last few sentences, dropped back down to a whisper, and his pained expression intensified. "Please promise me that you will never scare me like that again," Maria stared into his eyes, almost being able to feel herself the pain that was filling them.

"You know I can't promise that," she said, and without giving him a chance to reply, she kissed him, trying to emphasise her point. She kept up the contact, gently caressing him with her kisses, until she could taste salt, and broke it off to see that the tears that had been building up since he had walked through the door, and probably even before then, had spilled over and were running down his face. Maria brushed them away quickly. Seeing him cry just seemed wrong to her. She pushed his fringe off his face and tilted his head up, forcing him to look into her eyes.

"Hey, I'm ok now, alright? You don't need to keep beating yourself up over it,"

"I know, there's just something I need to tell you," He looked away, trying to figure out where to begin. Maria knew what he was going to say, and didn't want him to go through it all again. She had seen how hard it was for him to say it all the first time. She shook her head and put a finger over his lips.

"No, you don't need to say anything," Becker took hold of her hand and moved it away from his face.

"Yes I do, and you need to listen, ok? I..." Maria cut him off again.

"Ryan, you already told me," Confusion mixed in with the pain in Becker's eyes as she gave him a gentle smile. "When I was unconscious last night," she explained. "I could hear you," Surprise very quickly covered the confusion, making his eyes go about three times their normal size.

"You... What... How much did you hear?"

"From when you said that you would do anything to swap places," As Maria said this, all traces of the pain that had been in Becker's eyes vanished and as he looked down at her she saw the gleam that had been in them before come flooding back, and she reached up to kiss him once again.

It was at that moment that the Anomaly Detector decided to make itself known to the world. Again.

Becker growled and glared up at the flashing red lights, as if his doing so would make them go away. Unfortunately, they didn't, and Maria gave him a quick kiss on the end of his nose before swerving around him and out into the corridor. She leant over the railing that overlooked the Operations Area and shouted down at Jess.

"Okay, what is it this time?" Stifling a laugh at the look of sheer surprise on Jess' face at seeing her, Maria made her way into the Ops Area, just in time to see Anton straighten up; he had evidently been playing around with the Anomaly Detector's wiring; and Valerie hop off the table she had been sitting on. Before any of them could express their delight in seeing her alive and well, the rest of the team skidded into the Ops Area, bringing everyone back to the present.

"An anomaly has opened up in..." Jess waited until the satellite image cleared before reading out the co-ordinates. "Daws Hill RAF base, High Wycombe,"

"Will anyone be there this time of year?" Danny asked.

"Unfortunately yes, a lot of people. Daws Hill is a twenty-four-seven RAF base. One of the very important ones. We're going to have to get a move on." Becker informed him.

"Right. Lou, Abby, Connor, Becker and Natalie, you're with me. The rest of you stay here and don't do anything stupid," Danny rattled off his orders before grabbing a tracking device, clipping it to his belt and running out the main doors. Becker, Abby and Connor followed straight after him with Natalie bringing up the rear, stifling a yell of glee that Danny had picked her for a mission. Once they'd gone, the Ops Area was bathed in eerie silence, which Maria broke with an indignant look on her face after about ten seconds.

"Why was he looking at ME when he said that?"


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23~One Small Problem**

Becker rolled down the driver's window and waved his ID card into the camera built into the guardsman's hut in front of the main gate to RAF Daws Hill's campus. The whirring started almost immediately and he rolled his window back up again, dropping his card into the cup holders between the two front seats as he drove through the huge iron gates and up the drive.

"What's that look for?" Danny asked him.

"What look?"

"That one."

"Oh, yeah, thanks Danny, that's really helpful," Becker said sardonically. "I was only wondering why they haven't taken those out yet."

"What, the guardsman's huts?" Becker nodded. "Probably, I dunno, because there are people sitting in them who open the gates every time someone comes in?" Danny shot Becker a glance that suggested that he thought Becker's deck was short of a few playing cards. Becker only shook his head.

"No there isn't, the gate operations are all controlled from a central hub that also controls everything else, slap bang in the middle of campus." Danny shrugged.

"Maybe they just couldn't be bothered," he said, and decided to let the matter drop. A quiet beeping from the back seat caused him to turn around to see Connor tapping away at his portable Anomaly Locator. The beeping stopped as Becker pulled into the car park, which meant that the anomaly wasn't in range anymore. The pickup slid to a stop in the closest space Becker could find to the entrance and everyone climbed out. Natalie peered over Connor's shoulder at the Locator, which was still unhelpfully silent.

"So where is it, Brainbox?" she asked him, earning herself an annoyed glare from Connor.

"I picked up the signal over here, but we went out of range as soon as we pulled in. I should pick it up again in a minute," He started walking back towards the entrance to the car park, bent over the anomaly detector and completely oblivious to the rest of the world. The rest of the team started to follow him, until Lou stopped and stared up at the roof of the main building.

"Uhh, guys," he said. "I think we might have a bit of a problem." This was, of course, the biggest understatement of the century. Danny stopped wondering why everyone milling around the campus was suddenly looking upwards with expressions varying from horror to excitement on their faces and followed Lou's gaze, to see three, huge heads appearing over the top of the building.

"Connor," he said slowly, "What are those?" Connor looked up from his Locator and did a double take at the dinosaurs that had suddenly appeared behind the building. They were beautiful, really, these three majestic creatures of the past. They were also very, very big.

"Diplodocus," he said without taking his eyes off them. "Late Jurassic, herbivore. Harmless, really, unless you get too close and they stand on you, in which case, well, not so harmless."

"I feel better already," Danny muttered. "So where's the anomaly?"

"Other end of the airfield," Connor announced. His Locator had started bleeping again. Everyone looked at Danny, who was still staring up at the Diplodocus herd, which another three had joined. He was still staring at them as he came up with his plan, and relayed it very slowly, as if he was making it up on the spot. Which, of course, he was.

"Becker, get on the line to Jess and get her to try and evacuate this place, and if she can't do that then at least get everyone inside and away from the windows. Connor, Natalie, go find that anomaly and lock it. Abby and Lou, come with me."

"Please don't tell me that you want to try and pull off another helicopter stunt," Abby said, despair creeping into her voice.

"No, I need something a bit bigger than that," Danny said, a mischievous look forming on his face.

"Ah hell," Lou said. Danny frowned at him.

"Your confidence is inspiring," he muttered, looking around the car park for a way onto the airfield. He was vaguely aware of Becker talking to Jess through the com system while he formulated a plan of how to deal with the quite frankly enormous dinosaurs, of which there were now seven, that were causing an uproar with the locals. He smiled to himself at the genius of his own ideas.

"Jess can't evacuate the building, and Connor says they've located the anomaly at the other end of the airfield," Becker interrupted Danny's master plan with a team update, even though they'd only just started. "And anyway, the evac point is the airfield, so putting everyone there is slightly counterproductive. I say we just go, get the dinosaurs back through and leave as quickly as possible." Danny had to agree with him. There was no way they could stop anyone from seeing them now, might as well get it over with.

An eighth Diplodocus had made an appearance before Danny made the final call, causing the base staff to go even crazier than they already had.

"Okay, Becker, I need the airfield clear of people, can you get that done?" Danny glanced at Becker, who thought for a moment before letting out what sounded like a sigh of resignation.

"Yeah, I know someone who can do that," He said, albeit grudgingly. Danny nodded and chose to ignore Becker's discomfort for the time being.

"Good, go. Lou, go with him," He watched as the two of them ran off towards the main building, leaving him alone with Abby, still by the car.

"So what are we going to do?" Abby asked. Danny didn't reply, just grinned as his gaze found what he had been looking for. Abby followed it and paled slightly.

"No, Danny, just no."

"Oh yes," Danny's grin broadened as he set off across the car park with Abby following behind, pretty darn sure that she was going to regret this at some point in her future.

Lou followed Becker into the main building of the RAF base, which was more like a posh office block than anything else, up a staircase three floors and down another four corridors, by which time he realised that he was hopelessly lost, and couldn't have found his way back outside if he had tried. How Becker was managing to get where he needed to go was completely beyond him.

Soon they stopped outside an office that was pretty much the same as all the rest of them, and Becker leaned against the open doorframe, arms folded, and cleared his throat. The woman sitting at the desk with her back to them didn't even flinch, and Lou realised that she had headphones in her ears and was mouthing the words to whatever song she was listening to. Becker rolled his eyes, glanced behind him to check that there was no one else in the corridor, and reached down into the waste paper basket at his feet. He threw the ball of paper he had procured and it hit the back of the woman's head, causing her to almost jump out of her chair in surprise. She whirled and pulled the headphones out of her ears, guilt written in capitols all over her face. She saw Becker and the guilt changed to irritation, and she bent down, picked up the ball of paper and threw it right back at him. He deflected it straight back into the waste paper basket and started laughing, which made the woman laugh too, and she got up out of her chair and pulled him into a hug, all the while going on about how he could have called before turning up at work unannounced.

Lou, on the other hand, was completely confused.

Seeing his friend's look of bemusement, Becker made some introductions.

"Alison, this is my friend and work colleague Lou Walker, Lou this is my sister Alison." Lou's eyebrows started doing acrobatics as his confusion changed to surprise, and he stood in the doorway staring at Alison with his mouth slightly open, catching the flies, as Maria would say. Alison took in his expression and burst out laughing again before coming over and offering her hand.

"He didn't tell you he had a sister, did he?" she asked through a grin.

"No, he didn't," Lou found his voice and shook Alison's hand, before sending Becker a glare over her shoulder.

"What?" he asked, trying for innocence and failing slightly. "No one who works with you knows you have a brother either," Alison merely shrugged and reached around her brother for the iPhone that had fallen on the floor when she had gotten up so quickly.

"Which brings me to my next question, what can I do for you? And don't pretend that you don't want something, you always do," She reminded Lou a hell of a lot of Maria. Becker feigned hurtfulness for a second before getting down to it.

"We need you to make some phone calls and clear personnel from the airfield," he told her bluntly, all hints of humour gone from his tone and expression.

"Why?" Alison asked. Becker hesitated.

"I can't really tell you," he said, which was less than intelligent. She let out a humourless laugh before dropping back into her chair.

"So what do you want me to do, call up the office and say hi there, i need the airfield cleared for reasons unexplainable, thanks very much? Yeah, Ryan, how do you think that would OH MY GOD what the hell is that?" Lou, who had tuned out and started admiring the decor during this exchange, jumped out of his skin at Alison's exclamation, and spun around to see a Diplodocus staring at them from the other side of the office window. It snorted onto the glass, leaving a field of mist behind, before retracting its head again and disappearing from view. Lou poured a cup of water from the machine in the corner and handed it to Alison, who had gone completely white. She took it gratefully, but her hands were shaking so much that she had to put it down again.

"What the hell was that?" she asked a lot more quietly. Lou preferred it when she was shouting. She sounded like she was going to faint, and he wouldn't have been surprised if she did.

"That was the reason why I need the airfield cleared," Becker said, pulling up another chair and sitting next to his sister. He put one hand on her shoulder and she lifted her head out of her hands to read his expression. Realising that he wasn't joking and this was actually very important, Alison picked up the handset on her desk and hit one of the speed-dial buttons. Her hands had stopped shaking and she took a big gulp of water before the person on the other end of the phone answered.

"Hi, Catherine, it's Alison... Yes you do, Alison Becker, Group Captain Osington's secretary... No, Catherine, that's someone else..." Alison rolled her eyes and mimed having a hangover at her brother before turning back to the phone. "That's the one. Listen, Catherine, remember that favour you owe me? Yes, that... Okay good. Listen, I need you to get everyone off the airfield, like, now... Have you looked out the window recently? Yes... Yes... Now... Thank you Catherine... No I will not, and don't even think about asking... Goodbye Catherine." Alison dropped the phone back into the cradle and put her head in her hands again.

"Never sober two days in a row that one," she muttered, more to herself than anyone else, before draining the water cup and looking back up at Becker and Lou.

"Ok, I've done that, now will someone tell me what that was? Please? See, I even asked nicely." Becker looked at Lou, who shrugged, before turning back to his sister.

"It's a long story, and I am a little bit busy to go into detail, but that was a dinosaur." Alison was silent for about ten seconds before bursting into hysterical laughter.

"Oh please, you expect me to believe that? How old do you think I am, four?" Becker only stared at her solidly until she calmed down enough to actually register the serious expression on his face.

"You aren't kidding are you?"

"No."

"Well DAMN," Alison said, her favourite exclamation in pressured situations, and Becker had to stop her falling over as she fainted and fell sideways in her chair.

"Danny, this is NOT a good idea," Abby stared with increasing dread at the huge HC3 Chinook helicopter that Danny was attempting to start up. "I mean it Danny, this is definitely not your best plan," Danny wasn't paying her the slightest bit of attention; he was far too busy flipping switches in the hope that one or the other would make the thing start. Truthfully, he had no idea how to fly the thing, but how hard could it be? Backwards goes up, forwards goes down and steering was basically the same as in a car. Easy as the proverbial pie. When he thought he was down to the last switch, he was greeted with the sudden roar of the twin Textron Lycoming turobshaft engines and the rotors started up almost instantly. He grinned down at Abby, who was still standing on the tarmac next to the Chinook like a sensible human being. She did not grin back.

"Okay, I've got this," Danny shouted down to her. "Go and find something big but fast, like a jeep maybe, and I'll meet you over there as soon as Becker gives us the go ahead," Abby did not look amused, but she nodded anyway, evidently realising that there was nothing she could do to stop him at this point. She backed away a few paces as Danny shakily raised the Chinook into the air and began circling the car park, getting to grips with the handling. Abby sighed and ran off towards a row of armoured personnel carriers, all the while imagining how not amused Lester would be when he learned of what Danny was doing, and probably got the replacement bill to go with it.

Danny, however, was having the time of his life. Steering the Chinook was far easier than he had imagined, and there was only one red flashing light on the display screen, and seeing as he had no idea what it meant, he ignored it and angled towards the airfield, where all twelve of the Diplodocus herd had noticed his presence and begun backing off down the large expanse of tarmac.

"Quinn, the airfield has been cleared," Becker's voice in his ear made Danny pile on the speed and he shot off towards the herd.

"Okay Abby, I'll chase them from behind, you make sure there aren't any stragglers," Out of the corner of his eye Danny saw an APC race across the airfield and mimic Danny's movements in the Chinook. He grinned to himself and started towards the waiting dinosaurs. He angled towards the biggest of the twelve, hoping that if he scared the bejesus out of that one, it would run off and the rest would follow it. What he really wanted to do was run into it slightly, but he got the impression that very few people would like him after that. Instead he hovered behind it and maxed out the engine so that it positively thundered at the Diplodocus, and that seemed to have the desired effect. It let out a sound that Danny could only describe as something like what a cow would make before turning its massive body and ambled across the airfield. Danny chased after it, realising that these creatures actually moved quite fast due to how far apart their legs were, and was pleased to see the rest of the herd following him. The anomaly came into view and the herd increased its pace, causing Danny to pull the Chinook up above them more abruptly than he would have liked. Satisfied that they wouldn't suddenly stop and go back the way they'd come, which would be extremely unhelpful, he flanked the dinosaurs and gave Abby a hand in keeping all twelve of them in a straight line as they approached the anomaly. Connor and Natalie were standing a very safe distance away from it and the herd, Connor holding the remote to the locking mechanism that he had placed on the other side of the anomaly so that the dinosaurs didn't trample it. Danny pulled the Chinook to a stop and hovered above the huge anomaly as the herd filed through it, and as soon as all twelve had passed through, Connor hit the remote and the anomaly rushed closed.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24~Trouble**

Alison was not amused.

Not only had her brother's boss left the darn Chinook at the other end of the goddamn airfield, but she was going to have some serious explaining to do once all the legal jargon had been sorted out. In all fairness, she couldn't understand why she had to go back to the Anomaly Research Wherever in the first place. Of course she wasn't going to tell anyone. Who the Hell would believe her?

She snuck a glance out of the corner of her eye at her brother, leaning with arms folded against the black pickup as if absolutely nothing was wrong with the world. He looked perfectly relaxed, and was chatting away to that Lou Walker guy as if they were waiting to pick someone up rather than had just stopped a herd of prehistoric creatures from causing mayhem in an air force base. Come to think of it, this was probably a normal day for them.

But prehistoric creatures? Really? Last time she checked, they didn't exist in this day and age, hence the name. Ryan had said that they came through Anomalies and that they just popped up around the place without warning. He had also said that they didn't have a clue why or how Anomalies occurred. Then he had basically launched into the whole history of the ARC and everything they did, half of it involving someone called Helen and the other half Ryan's commanding officer from his cadet years, and Alison thought she'd blacked out again at that point. But she'd got the gist.

And now she had to go back to the ARC, sign the Official Secrets Act, and then go home again. Seriously. Who was she going to talk to about this who didn't already know anyway? It wasn't exactly Coffee Shop Gossip material. She started tapping her fingers against her arm, taking out her impatience on the one person she could rationally get mad at, namely Ryan's boss, Danny. She had seen enough to realise that he hadn't actually known how to fly the Chinook in the first place, and the fact that he hadn't crashed it into the building was mere blind luck. Not to mention the fact that he had essentially been stealing Military property. Add to that the small little detail that Chinooks belonged to RAF Odiham somewhere in Hampshire and it had only been there because they had been ferrying something down to London on that particular afternoon, and you have yourself some very angry Military personnel. Well, she was angry. She didn't know about everyone else, but she was.

"You look like you're watching American Idol. Stop fidgeting," Her brother's voice over her shoulder made her jump and she elbowed him in the stomach. He did have a point though. One rule she stuck to was that she would never ever watch an episode of American Idol after one of her University friends got very drunk before going to see it live and ran on stage in the middle of a performance. She had then been arrested, told the police that her name was Alison Becker and given them Alison's address and contact details, and Alison had been mailed a very hefty fine. She had hated it ever since. And, as much as she hated to admit it, Ryan had a point. She was fidgeting. A lot.

It seemed to take at least another half an hour before the APC another of Ryan's colleagues had nicked rolled into the car park, although it was probably only about ten minutes. Four people jumped down from inside it as it came to a stop just in front of the pickup, and each and every single one had a huge grin plastered on their face. Alison saw her brother make some kind of gesture towards the one who had been in the passenger seat, a confident looking man who had the faintest trace of a swagger in his walk, and his grin instantly vanished. His gaze flickered between Ryan and Alison and his eyes narrowed in confusion. Ryan mouthed something at him and he nodded in realisation, before swagger-walking towards them.

"What did you tell him?" Alison whispered to her brother.

"I made it pretty clear that you're about to kill him."

"Jolly good."

"Alison, this is Danny Quinn. Danny, my sister, Alison." Ryan raised his voice enough so that Danny could hear him, but, unfortunately, so did the rest of the occupants of the APC. Looks and whispers of 'I didn't know he had a sister' were exchanged before Danny held out a hand to Alison. She didn't take it.

"Do you know how much those are worth?" She got straight down to business, relieved that she could finally release some of her pent-up anger and frustration. Without waiting for a reply, she continued. "And did you know that that helicopter doesn't even belong here? RAF Odiham is going to go crazy when they find out that some complete moron stole one of their Chinooks and almost crashed it. Not to mention the fact that you came dangerously close to emptying the fuel cells with that stunt you pulled."

"I didn't steal it," Danny said, completely unphased. "I only borrowed it for a while. And I never even took it off campus. As for crashing it," He sucked in a breath, deliberately dragging out his response. "I didn't. So there's nothing for you to be worried about. Are we taking her with us?" The last sentence he aimed at Ryan, completely ignoring Alison who could feel the steam coming out of her ears at his disregard for very expensive Military equipment. Her brother nodded and Danny didn't even try to hide his groan.

"Excuse me, but..."

"Yeah, okay, fine, Abby I'll take this back, you guys pick me up over there," Danny waved away Alison's protestations and jogged over to the APC, before climbing in behind the wheel, winking at Alison, and driving off. Alison turned to Ryan, her expression demanding an explanation.

"What?" He shrugged. "Don't look at me, I have no idea what goes on in that head of his."

"I hate you so bad right now, you know that?"

"You are so American," Ryan retorted, his favourite comeback whenever she said that, just because he knew she hated it so much. He clipped his EMD into its case in the bed of the pickup, dodged Alison's slap and slid into the driver's seat. She got in next to him and folded her arms.

"I'm not talking to you anymore," she sulked. Ryan laughed and started the engine while he waited for the rest of his team to hurry up and pile into the back, which had clearly only been designed for three but had no trouble fitting all four of them. Ryan hardly even slowed down as they passed Danny, and Alison herd him jump into the bed of the pickup and watched in the rear-view mirror as he braced himself against her brother's less than strictly safe driving.

Her anger was beginning to dissipate as they drove out of the front gates, no doubt earning some strange stares from whoever was manning the CCTV, and for about ten minutes they drove in silence apart from Danny's whistling from the back of the pickup. They were cruising down an empty road at probably twice the speed limit, and someone in the back had just leaned forward to say something, when a very big, very heavy force slammed into the side of the pickup. Alison was vaguely aware of glass splintering all around her as the pickup rolled off the road and went onto its side, before sliding along the grass at about fifty miles an hour and finally crashing into what Alison assumed was a tree before she blacked out again for the third time in the space of two hours.

Jess sighed and exchanged yet another despairing glance with Valerie as the teaspoon flew across the room for the umpteenth time. Ever since Seb Holland had arrived, he and Maria just had not shut up. It had been 'bicker, bicker, bicker' all afternoon, not to mention the fact that Seb had thrown a teaspoon at Maria about half an hour ago and it had been going back and forth between them ever since, and Jess for one was getting sick of it. She was also privy to half of the sibling rivalry between Becker and his sister that was going on down at the air force base, but thankfully she could only hear Becker's side if it. For the first time in her life, Jess thanked God that she was an only child.

She ducked at the last minute as Seb launched the teaspoon back at his sister and nearly hit her in the face, before Maria chucked it back again with far better accuracy. The two of them were also arguing about whose fault it was that Natalie's university application form had been used as bedding for George's hamster, and they were doing it so loudly that Jess was inclined to remind them that George didn't actually have a hamster, so their entire argument was completely pointless anyway.

"Will you two please just shut up?" Anton, of all people, called from underneath the Anomaly detector. He was staring at the junction box he had opened up as if he was about to fire lasers through his eyes at it, and Maria and Seb both went very silent very quickly. No one wanted to disturb Anton while he was working, Valerie had made that clear.

The peace and quiet wasn't to last, however, and sooner than anyone would have liked, they were at it again like children. Jess heard Anton's angry sigh and he slammed his screwdriver down onto the floor, making Valerie jump and start sending warning looks towards Maria. Jess slid lower in her chair as Anton rolled out from under the table and stood up, arms folded, and somehow managed to glare at both Holland siblings at once. His expression reminded Jess of the headmistress in the film of Roald Dahl's 'Matilda', and she had to hold a hand over her mouth to stop herself laughing as Anton launched into a lecture about how hard it is to concentrate when the two of them were acting like idiots.

Just as he was reaching his climax, the Anomaly Detector went off, filling the entire building with blinding lights and deafening sirens. Jess waited for the satellite image to clear as the others rushed to gather around her chair to hear what was happening, and Jess was all too aware of their reactions to what they saw next.

Wilder was standing next to an overturned black pickup, a thick piece of rope in one hand and a small black box in the other. The pickup was the one that the team had gone out in just hours before, and the rope was tied around the neck of a very big, very scary-looking dinosaur.

No one spoke as they watched Wilder and another man that none of them recognised at first placed five tall objects in a pentagon around the pickup, and Wilder pressed something on his black box, and the ARC pickup truck vanished in a blue light. The two men and the dinosaur disappeared through the anomaly, which then closed behind them, leaving the team staring at nothing more than a few dents in the ground and some shattered glass. Anton broke the silence first by shouting something very loudly in Russian, making Valerie shoot him a stern look.

"Was that really neccesary? Just because no one else knows what you're saying doesn't mean you can be that rude,"

"Jess can you play that back?" Anton ignored Valerie and leaned over Jess' shoulder, trying to get a better view of the screen. Jess rewound the satellite imagery and they all watched again as Wilder and his new best friend kidnapped the rest of the team.

"Stop there," Jess hastily hit the spacebar at Anton's sudden demand, and she herd Valerie gasp.

"Bastard," Anton muttered as he stared in disgust at the man on the screen.

"I'm guessing he's a friend of yours?" Seb questioned. Anton gave a sarcastic snort, but Valerie nodded, her eyes wide in disbelief. She looked like she might start crying.

"His name's Sam Johnson," she said slowly. "He was in our colony for a few years."

"Never liked him from the start," Anton was muttering again, more to himself than anyone else. Valerie told him to shut up with more force than anyone had ever heard her use.

"Hang on," Maria, who had been frowning at the screen for the last few minutes spoke up, "Where did they go? Our guys, I mean. They literally vanished," Anton shook his head.

"No, they teleported," he announced. Everyone except Valerie stared at him like he had just told them that he was growing a head in a jar back in his suite, so he continued.

"Back home I was playing around with a basic theory that a German scientist thought up of the possibilities of teleportation. I hadn't finished but I thought I was on to something when the predators attacked. Sam must have found it and finished it off," He practically spat out the last sentence, his glaring eyes never leaving the Anomaly Detector's main screen.

"I have to admit, that is pretty cool. It's like every sci-fi nerd's dream," Seb declared, earning himself a slap in the stomach from his sister.

"So where did they go?" Jess asked, even though it was blatantly obvious no one knew the answer.

"If the receiving pad was directly connected to the teleport buffers then they are probably with Wilder and Sam through the Anomaly," Anton said, his voice cold and emotionless.

"You're telling me that they have teleported seven people through an anomaly? After running them over with a... What was it?" Maria looked at Jess, who shrugged.

"Ceratosaurus," Valerie's voice was very quiet. "He ran them over with a Ceratosaurus. He probably borrowed it from the Jurassic era when that last anomaly opened."

"Could someone enlighten me, please? I have no idea what a Ceratowhatever is," Seb requested, his tone completely devoid of any sarcasm or banter.

"Oh, uh, Ceratosaurus was a pack predator, a very powerful one too, about four of them could bring down a full grown Stegosaurus. They had little horns and ridges all over their heads and weren't all that lacking in the Big Pointy Teeth department either. They were also extremely intelligent and had killer eyesight. Not literally killer but you get what I mean. Wilder has basically gone and house trained one of the Jurassic's top predators." The silence that followed Valerie's science lesson was long, loud and uncomfortable. All five of them exchanged the same look, each one knowing what the rest were thinking. They were way out of their depth, both technologically and logistically, but the inescapable truth was that they couldn't sit around waiting for the team to make their own way home, not this time. They would have to go and find them.

Of course, no one wanted to admit to any of this out loud, so the silence dragged on until Burton's condescending voice drifted down to them from outside Lester's office.

"I suppose that because we're all still standing around staring at each other it wasn't important," he leant casually over the railing, the look on his face telling everyone in the Operations Area that he knew it was the complete opposite. Maria shot him a glare and turned back to Jess.

"Anyone got any bright ideas?" she was completely ignoring Burton at this point, a detail that annoyed him a little bit more than his pride and ego would allow him to admit. "We need to rescue them, that's a given, but I'm welcome to suggestions as to the how,"

"Logically, they would have taken them back to our time, and are probably holding them there somewhere," Anton was still frowning, but it was more in concentration than anger this time.

"I don't suppose you can make any more of those teleport thingummywhatsits can you?" Seb looked uneasy. He had been told by Lester that all he would be doing here was developing his com system, not playing hide-and-seek in the future. Anton shook his head slowly.

"Haven't got the technology. And even if I did I wouldn't. Teleportation theory was made illegal by every country in the world practically the moment it was thought up. I don't want the wrong people getting hold of it and changing history." Seb made a grunting sound, which was when everyone remembered that Burton was still listening to them.

"Did you say teleportation?" he looked like a child that had just been told that he had won the lottery and could have anything he wanted. No one answered him so he strolled down to the Ops area and leaned over Jess to hit the spacebar and resume the satellite recording. If it was even possible, he brightened even more as the team's pickup vanished, and Maria's hand fisted at her side.

"But this is fantastic," he beamed. "If we could get hold of this technology Britain would have a major hold on the rest of the world. We could have infinite power," He looked around for enthusiastic support, and his face fell as he realised he wasn't getting any.

"I don't suppose you noticed, but that pickup that Wilder teleported had our team in it. You remember them? Danny, Becker, Connor, Abby, Lou and Natalie?" Seb sucked in a sharp breath at the mention of his daughter's name, but let Maria continue without interruption. "There was also a civilian woman in that pickup. I don't care how much advancement this tech would give us, we have to go and rescue our people."

"You don't understand, Maria," he began, but Maria never let him get any further. She rounded on him, her face like thunder.

"No, YOU don't understand! You don't give a damn about how many people are killed during this as long as you get your precious technology. People, HUMAN BEINGS, Burton, are not a commodity that can be replaced!" Burton didn't even flinch at her sudden and uncharacteristic outburst. He met her gaze with ease.

"I think you're letting your personal feelings for some of the members of that team cloud your judgement," he said quietly. Maria wanted so desperately to slap him. She didn't have to wait long, however, because in less time than it took her to register his movement, Seb had swung a punch that sent Burton sprawling across the floor with blood gushing out of his nose. Maria stared in amazement at her brother as he knelt next to him and justified his action.

"My daughter is on that team. I will not be told by some pompous scientist what I can and cannot do to protect her." He stood up and faced Maria. "How soon can you be ready?" Maria looked around to Valerie, Anton and Jess, all wearing determined expressions after Seb's sudden display of force.

"We leave in ten minutes." she ordered.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25~Lost&Found**

Natalie coughed, suddenly inhaling a lot of dust, and tried to sit up. She hit her head on something and dropped heavily back onto the floor, so rolled over to try and empty her lungs of the same amount of dirt that she found under her closet the last time she'd spring-cleaned her room. She felt strong arms around her waist that helped her to sit up without banging her head again, and a plastic bottle was placed in her hand.

"Drink this," Lou's voice came from just behind her shoulder and she gratefully downed the water. It was warm, and there wasn't very much of it, but it was better than nothing and it cleared her dry throat.

"Where are we?" she croaked, shifting so that she could sit up without Lou's aid.

"No idea. All I know is that the last batteries of my torch died about ten minutes ago and Danny is in a really bad way,"

"What happened?" Natalie felt Lou shrug.

"Again, no idea. We hit something. Actually I think that something hit us and I woke up here something like an hour ago. You're the first to wake up."

"And Danny?"

"He was standing on the back of the pickup, Nat. He's broken both his arms, a leg and from what I can tell at least three ribs, but that's all i could get just by looking at it. I don't want to go any deeper until he's conscious." Lou sighed and Natalie herd him rub his chin. "What about you? Anything broken?"

"I don't think so. Nothing hurts besides my head, but that's to be expected I guess. How're you doing?"

"I'm fine. Here, hold still," Natalie stiffened as she felt Lou's fingers gently run over her forehead, across her face and through her hair. She pulled her ponytail out and he checked over her head, making sure her headache wasn't due to a gushing wound.

"Yeah, you're good," he decided. His fingers lingered on her cheek for longer than was strictly necessary and she tried to stifle a shiver. His touch always made her do that, but he was the last person she wanted to know about it. She had enough to get through at the moment without Lou knowing her feelings for him. She thought she heard him sigh but was distracted by someone coughing to her left, and Lou rummaged around in a rucksack and crawled towards it. It was Becker.

"Alison..?" he muttered.

"She's okay. What about you? You've got a nasty cut on your wrist and a few bruises but did I miss anything?" there was more rustling as Becker sat up.

"I don't think so. What happened to your torch?"

"Batteries died. Is there one in your rucksack? I would have looked but you were lying on it and I didn't want to move you," There was more rustles before Lou told Natalie to shut her eyes and flicked on the torch, providing just enough light to reveal the immediate area and that was about it. Opening her eyes, Natalie saw Abby and Connor in the opposite corner, Alison was lying just next to her brother, and Danny was in the middle of the room. Just from a glance Natalie could see that he was in a really bad way. He had bandages and plasters pretty much all over him and his breath was coming in short gasps. The room itself wasn't helping. There was more dust layering the floor than Natalie had ever seen in her life, and was lined with shelving units that dropped more dust onto the floor every time someone moved. Natalie guessed that was what she had hit her head on earlier.

She turned her gaze back to Lou, who had fixed Becker's torch on a shelf just above head height so that he could still see but wouldn't blind anyone, and was helping Becker sit up and drink from another bottle of water. Now that she could see him, Lou looked haggard, weary and just plain tired. She wasn't surprised, seeing as they had just been in a car accident and all.

"I don't suppose either of you have a clue what happened, do you?" Becker eventually asked after draining his water bottle.

"Nope. I figured that something hit us but I have no idea what."

"It wasn't another car; there weren't any turn-off roads anywhere near us." The conversation halted as Alison stirred and raised a hand against the torch's light. Becker and Lou instantly reacted, Lou finding some more water while Becker helped his sister to sit up. It only took a split second, but Natalie saw Becker try and lean on his left arm, the one Lou had bandaged earlier, but it nearly gave out under his weight so he switched to his other one. Realisation that Becker's arm had more than 'a nasty cut' on it speared through Natalie instantly, but she didn't say anything. She shared her aunt's uncanny ability to notice the minute details, but Maria never pointed such things out. Natalie figured that there was probably a reason so kept quiet. She would mention it quietly to Lou later.

Alison started up the 'what-the-heck-happened' conversation again and Natalie, who had nothing else to contribute to it, tuned out, instead looking around at the three members of the team still unconscious. Danny hadn't changed at all, which worried Natalie even further, but Connor and Abby were both looking around the room. They were obviously in a less dusty corner than everyone else. Lou noticed her looking at them and crawled over, pulling more water bottles out of his bag as he did so. Natalie wondered how many they had left.

Ignoring the sounds of Lou checking up on Abby and Connor, Natalie curled in on herself and let her thoughts wonder. She wanted to think that someone would be out looking for them, but the more rational side of her brain was telling her that there was a huge chance no one even knew anything was wrong. She wondered what her dad would do when Maria told him she had gone out on a mission. He would probably get really angry, hit something, and storm out of the room, only to come back in again and have the world's biggest shouting match with his sister. The scenario played out quite nicely in her head; probably due to the fact that she had seen it happening so many times; and it made her smile.

Natalie didn't know how long they were down there in that room, but during that time Danny woke up, three more torches ran out of batteries and they used up the last of the water. Everyone who was able to helped out Lou in taking care of Danny; Natalie, Alison and Becker all had their hands full. Connor and Abby had seven broken bones between them so Lou just made them sit still and checked up on them every now and again, but the other four only stopped to get a few moments of sleep. Natalie didn't think that Lou even stopped for that. She also received more inklings that Becker's arm was troubling him more than he let on. Every time Lou told him he had to change the bandages he refused, saying that Danny needed them more than he did, and when Alison asked him about it he just shrugged her off. Every time this happened, Natalie wished that Maria was there. Then, of course, came the truth that if Maria was there, they would be back at the ARC already, and that only made her feel even worse.

For the first time in an age, Lou sat heavily in the dust next to her and let out a long, exhausted sigh.

"You need to sleep," Natalie told him, attempting to leave no room for argument. Lou just grinned, his eyes shut.

"You sound just like Maria when you say that,"

"And if she was the one telling you, you wouldn't argue,"

"You're right, I wouldn't, but she isn't here, which means that if i do stop and rest no one else would be able to keep an eye. So I'm not going to."

"I don't think anyone will die if you sleep for an hour or two," Natalie retorted. Lou merely grinned again and stuck an arm into the MedKit that hadn't left his side the entire time. He frowned, rummaged deeper, and swore.

"What?"

"We are officially out of bandages," he informed her, quiet enough so that no one else would hear him. Natalie could tell by his tone of voice that he was panicking inside but trying to hide it. He needn't have bothered. She knew exactly how huge a problem having no bandages left was. And as if she could sense that the biggest bummer of all bummers had just exploded in the room, Alison called to Lou from where she was crouching beside her brother. Taking a deep breath, Lou made his way over.

"He's burning up. I don't know what's wrong with him," Concern was written in capitols all over Alison's face as Lou pressed the back of his hand against Becker's forehead.

"Jesus, you could boil an egg on that," he muttered. His gaze dropped to Becker's arm and he sat down heavily, despair creeping into his eyes. "Please, don't be what I think it is," he slowly unwrapped the bandage that he had put there all that time ago, and heard Alison gasp at what had once been a perfectly harmless scratch.

"But you can do something, right, I mean, he's not going to die or anything?" Lou knew he couldn't give Alison the answer she wanted. There was no escaping it this time.

"I don't know. If I still had water and clean bandages then maybe but I have neither of those things." he held her gaze as two tears leaked out of her eyes. "I genuinely don't know, Alison." Lou looked down again as Alison tried and failed to hold back sobs. Natalie inched closer to him and slid her hand into his, trying to give him some reassurance that there was something he could do, he just hadn't thought of it yet. He shook his head; it was amazing how the smallest of movements could bring on the strongest emotions. Natalie felt tears forming in her own eyes but blinked them back. She wasn't going to cry, not while there could still be a chance. She could see Lou frantically racking his brain for anything, even the most dangerous idea of what he could to but came up with nothing. Everyone at MedSchool had said that blood poisoning from infected wounds was easily solved with the most basic equipment, but they had never covered what to do if you don't even have that. He thought about using the sleeve of his shirt as a bandage but ruled it out instantly. That would undoubtedly make it even worse. Natalie was about to say something when he heard, or thought he heard anyway, something banging on the ceiling. He put a finger to his lips and stood up, ignoring his screaming muscles telling him that he had been sitting down for way too long. The banging came again, and again, and the next thing he knew a shaft of blinding sunlight was streaming through the ceiling from some kind of trapdoor.

"Guys, I've found them," Relief and sheer joy washed through Lou as he recognised Maria's voice, and someone dropped down through the roof into the room. Lou stepped back out of the light to try and get his eyes to focus, and saw Natalie gripping Maria in a hug tighter than he thought she could manage. Untangling herself from her niece, Maria turned to him.

"I don't suppose we can save the pleasantries for later. We have a bit of a problem down here," Lou cut off whatever it was she was about to say, and the playful look in her eyes instantly vanished.

"What happened?"

"It's Becker. He had a wound on his arm when we were first brought down here, and it was fine at the time but he refused to let me change the bandages. It's infected and I ran out of anything to clear it up with ages ago." Maria nodded and spoke into her com system.

"Anton, get down here. Valerie, you and Sam stay up there and go find a ladder or something," Another person immediately dropped into the room and Maria turned to him.

"Give Lou a hand getting everyone ready to move," she ordered. Anton nodded and Lou began filling him in on who had a broken whatever and who was pretty much fine. Maria went over to Becker, where Alison had stopped crying and was kneeling over him again.

"How long has he been like this?"

"I don't know. About fifteen minutes ago I woke up and he was really, really hot but I don't know how long I was asleep for. I think it's been like this for a while though," Maria nodded, more to herself than to Alison, and examined Becker's arm. The cut itself was red and swollen and was clogged up with bits of dust that had gotten in through the bandage. The skin around it was bright red and very hot. Maria sucked a breath in through her teeth, cursing Becker's stubbornness and hoping that she would be able to fix it. If she didn't, he would die. It was as simple as that.

"Alison, talk to him, get him awake and keep him there," Maria only half-listened to Alison's frantic chatter as she mixed disinfectant cream with some water and rubbed it into Becker's wound, causing him to flinch and tighten the muscles in his arm. As he did so, dirty blood began flowing out of it.

"Hey, I know this hurts, but you need to relax, okay?" Alison beat Maria to the punch and Becker nodded, his arm loosening. For the next ten minutes, Maria worked to try and clean up the wound, causing Becker to tense every single muscle in his body except his arm in an attempt to make her job easier. She hated that she was causing him so much pain but at the same time she knew that if she didn't, he would suffer long and hard before eventually dying. It was one of those inescapable situations that her mother had been so fond of talking about.

Finally, after what had felt like hours, Maria was satisfied that she could do no more until she got him to a proper medical bay. Now all she had to do was stitch it up, which wouldn't be any fun for either of them.

"Ryan listen," his gaze flicked to her, and she saw a lot more awareness in it than had been there earlier. Her soul ached at the realisation that he would feel every single thing she was about to do. "I need to stitch this up, ok, and it's going to hurt. I don't have any anaesthetics and I can't wait to get you back to the ARC. Just try not to tense your arm," He nodded and Alison threaded her fingers through his while Maria found a needle and thread.

"Ready?" he nodded again and Maria pushed her needle through his skin. The sound he made as she did so made tears spring to her eyes but she blinked them away and focused on nothing but the task at hand. Shaking hands would only worsen his pain, she told herself.

The cut seemed to get longer and longer as Maria stitched. Each time she pierced the angry skin around it, he gave her some uncontrollable sign that she was causing him a lot of pain, and each time another piece of her soul died. Alison had also stopped talking, which meant that Becker's undivided attention was on Maria and the pain that shot through his arm at regular intervals. She had never found any part of her job as hard as this was, and began to wonder if anything ever would be.

Eventually Maria finished. Nobody even bothered to hide their relief at the fact, and Becker relaxed so much that he ended up lying on the floor instead of sitting against the wall. Maria tied a bandage around it and pulled him to his feet.

"How're you feeling?"

"I'm a little dizzy but I'll live," he teased. Maria hit him in the shoulder before pulling him into a tight hug.

"Next time Lou tells you to do something you do it," she ordered, letting her concern flow into her voice.

"Yes ma'am," she could hear that he was still smiling and for some reason this annoyed her.

"I mean it," she pulled away and stared him in the face. "If I had been ten minutes later..."

"But you weren't," he put a finger to her lips and cut her off midsentence. "So don't start what-iffing again," Maria sighed and leaned against him.

"Am I the only one who gives a damn about your wellbeing?"

"Yes, and I'm the only one who gives a damn about yours, so I guess we're even,"

"I hate to interrupt but we're all ready to go over here," Lou called from underneath the trapdoor. A ladder stood behind him and the rest of the team, minus Danny who couldn't actually stand up, were gathered around him. Maria straightened up and nodded, and Lou scrambled up the ladder into the rapidly fading light above them.

"Please hurry," Valerie called down. "We do not want to be out here at night," Abby, Connor, Natalie and Alison followed Lou up and Anton passed Danny up before following himself, leaving Maria and Becker alone in the room. She turned to tell him to go up first but as soon as she did, his lips were on hers, leaving her breathless.

"Thank you," he whispered, stroking her face with the back of two fingers. She wanted to kiss him again but knew Lou or someone would come investigating if they stayed down there any longer so decided against it, much to her head's approval but her heart's annoyance. Instead she motioned up the ladder and he climbed, leading her up into the daylight. Once up, she softly dropped the trapdoor and nodded to Sam Johnson who was standing a little way away from the rest of the group, and followed him back through the ruined city towards the anomaly home.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26~Injustice**

There had been a lot of scurrying around to get everything together in ten minutes, or at least, everyone except Valerie had been scurrying. She had stayed exactly where she was, completely lost in thought. She just didn't understand why Sam Johnson had been involved with Wilder. It didn't add up; he was so sweet, the phrase "wouldn't hurt a fly" had been re-defined by his existence, and the two of them had been very good friends. So she simply failed to understand why he was doing this.

The team had almost left her behind; she was so wrapped up in her inner argument that she hadn't even noticed Seb getting very cross at Maria telling him to stay behind until Anton shouted back to her, which had immediately set her thoughts going again. She wasn't happy with him, either. He let the fact that he didn't like Sam influence his, and therefore pretty much everyone else's, opinion of him, and Valerie knew for a fact that this dislike was based on jealousy and jealousy alone. Five years ago, when Sam had first joined the colony, within a week Anton had lost his toolbox, and immediately pointed the finger at the new guy, even though there was no evidence suggesting it, and had hated him ever since. Even after he found it under the sofa a week later, the two of them had never had a civilised conversation, and now, Anton was very, very unlikely to give Sam a chance. And she hated him for it.

She had gotten into the car and gone through the whole journey on complete auto-pilot, and Maria's hand on her shoulder when they arrived at the garage made her jump out of her skin. Maria told her that if she didn't get her act together, she would be left behind. This had led to Anton staring at her with one of his famous unreadable expressions for the next ten minutes, which Valerie completely ignored, and followed Maria through the anomaly.

She'd realised that someone was following them as soon as they had reached the city, and a combination of logic and common sense told her that it was Sam. Who else would it have been? Her suspicions were confirmed twenty seconds after making them as a tall, blonde man stepped out of the shadows of a nearby doorway, and Anton's hands fisted at his sides. Valerie met Sam's gaze, and instead of everything she thought she would feel at seeing him again; namely happiness at his survival from that predator attack; she felt nothing. Everything she had been feeling up until that moment vanished, leaving just her, Sam, and a whole lot of words. She sent Anton a "move and I will kill you" look, ignored his protests, and took a few steps toward Sam.

"Why?" She demanded, skipping the pleasantries and giving him no chance to escape the issue.

"Why what?"

"You know what I'm talking about," Valerie gave him a hard stare until he answered in his thick Oklahoma accent.

"He made me an offer I couldn't refuse,"

"And what was that?" Sam's gaze slowly moved from Valerie to Anton, who was standing with his arms folded, his body language daring Sam to answer his question. The look on his face was cold, and if Valerie hadn't known him better she would have mistaken it for a sneer.

"He offered me a way outta this place," Sam replied, keeping his guarded expression fixed on Anton but aiming his response at Valerie. He matched Anton's Alpha-Male appearance perfectly, which only annoyed Anton further. "Which I'm guessin' by what you guys are wearin' y'already did,"

"Were you so easily bought?" Anton's tone was thick with disgust and if Sam hadn't responded so quickly Valerie would have told him very loudly to shut up. Sam, however, seemed to have been expecting Aton to ask.

"Don't try and tell me for even a second you wouldn't have done the same. All the old man said I had to do was finish somethin' for him and give him a hand movin' somethin' else. If I'd known he meant runnin' a movin' truck over with a freakin' dinosaur, I never would've agreed to it,"

"You also stole my research,"

"Dude, I never stole a thing. I've had that teleportation thing figured for years, you were just too stubborn to listen to me."

"Sam, we need you to help us," Valerie interjected before Anton started punching things. "You have to show us where you sent the people in that pickup." Sam's gaze flicked back to Valerie, but it returned warily to Anton every few seconds.

"Can't, honey. If I do, my deal with the old man's off, and I ain't got a clue where the anomaly I want is."

"It's half a mile outside the city, on the edge of that canyon," Valerie supplied without a moment's hesitation. Sam smiled, sadness tinting the expression.

"I'm no betrayer, Val," he said, quiet enough for Anton not to hear him.

"But you're not the bad guy either," When Sam didn't say anything, Valerie changed tack. "What were you going to do, just roam around not even existing until you died?"

"What's your point?"

"Help us. Come back with us, and we can make you actually properly exist." she turned around and sought out Maria, who was standing a little behind Anton, silently watching the exchange. "Lester can make some phone calls and do what he's doing for us, can't he?" Maria nodded slowly, in truth having no idea exactly how many phone calls Lester was willing to make, and armed with this information, Valerie turned back to Sam.

"See. Please help us, Sam." Sam's silence was so long that Valerie was afraid he would say no. But he didn't. After what seemed like forever, he let out a long breath and shook his head in exasperation.

"I cannot believe I am doing this," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. "Fine, I'll show y'all where they are," Valerie grinned at him like the Cheshire cat, a grin which vanished as soon as she heard Anton's smirk. Sam's whole face darkened and he turned on him.

"Look, everyone's got their price, okay? Mine just so happens to be the fastest way I can get myself outta here, and I'll bet that if y'all hadn't already found a way, yours wouldn't be too far off." When Anton's expression didn't change in the slightest, Sam started up again.

"Ok then, what if it was her?" he gestured at Valerie and Anton's smirk disappeared. "You and I both know you'd do whatever it took to protect her if she was in danger, even if it meant betraying everything you believed in. Everyone has their price, Ivanov, even you. Now do you want me to show you where your friends are or not?" And with that, Sam turned and slunk back into the building he had come out of, not even waiting for them to follow him. Valerie snuck a glance at Anton but he strode past her without even looking in her direction. That was the first moment in her entire life when Valerie wondered how deep his affection for her actually went.

So that was how it had happened. And now, Sam was leading the newly rescued ARC team through the rabbit warren of ruined buildings back to the anomaly. Neither he nor Valerie spoke to one another as they walked, even though they were ahead of the rest of the group. Sam could sense that the person she really wanted to talk to was Anton, but he had been avoiding her since Sam's earlier outburst. That, Valerie could understand. Anton had never been the type to talk about his personal feelings.

Sam stopped and changed direction to avoid a Predator nest, which was the only reason Valerie was paying enough attention to her surroundings to notice the figure on top of the building ahead of them, and the thing that glinted in the sunlight that was pointing down at them. Before Valerie could even process what it might be, the deafening boom of a gunshot rang out, and the air around them was instantly filled with the all-too aware growling of Predators that knew there was prey nearby. She turned to Sam to ask him which way they should go, and everything around her stopped.

As she turned, Sam's eyes widened in fear and a single drop of blood trickled down the side of his face. At almost the same time, Sam fell onto his knees and then forwards into the dirt, landing awkwardly on his side and stared up at Valerie with unseeing eyes. At the same moment as he hit the floor, Valerie screamed. She felt her own knees give out and she hit the floor too, only vaguely aware of Maria skidding to a stop next to Sam. She took one look at where the bullet had entered Sam's skull and shook her head at someone outside Valerie's field of vision, probably either Lou or Becker. Valerie felt something warm running down her cheeks and realised that she was crying, but there was no feeling inside her. She felt like she was letting someone else control her body and was merely watching the outcome of their decisions.

Then she saw him. Wilder. He had climbed down from the top of the building and was now standing only a few feet away from her, keeping to the shadows of a doorway. Hatred stronger than Valerie had ever felt before welled up inside her and she got to her feet, prepared to kill Wilder with her own two hands. As she launched herself at him, however, strong hands grabbed her around her waist and pulled her back. She began to scream again. Not the same high-pitched wailing as before, but feral shouts aimed at her captor to release her. A voice, Anton's, began whispering in her ear, telling her to calm down. She didn't even register the sounds; she was too focused on Wilder's obnoxious grin as he backed away into his building, and a flash of light told her that he had disappeared. Valerie's screams only intensified. She heard Anton shout to Maria, and then someone else's hands were on her shoulders too.

"I'm sorry," Maria's soft yet commanding voice whispered in her ear, and Valerie felt something sharp puncture the skin of her upper arm, before she lost all control of herself and fell into Anton's sturdy arms. She lay there for a small number of seconds before everything went black, and the sedative Maria had injected her with kicked in.

Anton scooped Valerie up into his arms as soon as her eyes closed and turned to Maria. Guilt at what she had just done flickered through the doctor's expression but was gone again as quickly as it came. Anton knew that as soon as this mission was over, Maria would have all kinds of moral problems to argue with herself but until then, her mind was in the present and nowhere else.

"We need to get out of here," he said matter-of-factly. As if she didn't already know. Anyone with half an ear could hear the predators growling to each other as they approached. The only way that wasn't blocked was the way Wilder had gone, through a building which Anton happened to know had a back door. Maria nodded and turned to Becker, who was already fireman's lifting Sam Johnson's body over his shoulder. They nodded at each other before setting off across the dusty track that had once been a road. EMD shots fired all over the place, and even though only four people were using them, predators fell by the dozen. But that was the thing with predators. There seemed to be no end to them.

Lou and Danny were the last through the door; Anton was amazed that the latter had even got this far with so many wounds on him; and Alison slammed it shut behind them before automatically turning to her brother for the next move.

"Okay Anton, I really hope you know where we are," Maria's emerald eyes gave away nothing but determination and a hell bent desire to get the whole team out alive. Anton nodded once before turning and kicking open a door directly opposite the one they had come in through, hoping to gain some ground before the predators realised they had gone the short way. They only had a ten second head start, but Anton knew that the anomaly was just around the corner.

Becker felt like a robot as he carefully placed Sam Johnson's body on one of the stretcher beds the ARC medics had brought down to the garage. He hadn't even known the man, but got the feeling Valerie would want him buried properly, in a proper graveyard with maybe even a proper service, if that was at all possible, so hadn't needed telling that he needed taking back with them. Without any internal feelings at all, he looked around the garage at the rest of the team; Anton laying Valerie down on another stretcher and telling a medic what had happened; Lou helping Danny onto a third stretcher and scribbling something, probably an injury list, onto a clipboard which he handed to another medic before sliding down the wall and sitting, completely exhausted, on the floor; Natalie insisting that nothing was wrong with her to yet another medic before joining Lou, and the two of them leaning against each other, neither saying anything but just enjoying the other's company; Connor and Abby being led into the back of one of the four ambulances waiting outside so that they could go and get some proper casts put on their broken arms, wrists and ribs; Alison and Maria in the middle of a heated conversation...

The sight of this brought a small spike of curiosity into Becker's exhausted brain, but before he could approach them he was ambushed by a medic who asked to put fresh bandages on his wrist. Having learnt his lesson from last time he agreed, and by the time the medic was finished, Maria was talking to Lou and Alison was being occupied by another medic who seemed to have more interest in his sister than just her injuries. Becker only got as far as raising an eyebrow before a hand slid into his, and he looked down at the top of Maria's head resting against his shoulder. He pulled her into a comforting hug and rested his chin on the top of her head while she seemed to fall asleep against his chest. They stood like that for a while before Maria muttered something that Becker didn't catch.

"What?"

"I said," Maria straightened up so that she was talking at him not down to the floor, "That Valerie is going to kill me," Despite himself, Becker smiled.

"She'll understand,"

"Oh, undoubtedly."

"So why..?"

"Have you ever been sedated?"

"No, actually,"

"It's not very nice. And yes, Val will realise that it was necessary and will, probably, get over it very quickly, but she will still kill me." Becker smiled again and Maria nestled herself back against his chest. If he hadn't been so tired, Becker would have been quite content with just standing there holding her, but as it was, he really wanted a cold shower and to go to bed. As if to punctuate his thoughts, Becker yawned, and Maria laughed.

"Me too, I could sleep for a week," she said through a smile. Lou shouted over to them, saying that they were waiting for them so that they could go home, and Maria gave him a thumbs-up and turned back to Becker. She kissed him, long and soft, before staring into his eyes.

"Do you trust me?" she asked. Becker's eyebrows furrowed as confusion washed around his already saturated brain.

"Of course I do, why?" Instead of answering, Maria tightened her grip around his neck and hugged him again, which Becker returned, albeit somewhat slowly.

"Ahh crap," she muttered after an almost awkward pause.

"What?"

"I left my MedKit down there. You go on, I'll run and get it and catch you up," She pulled away from him and jogged towards the anomaly locking device, which Becker only then noticed had the little green box sitting next to it. He turned to head towards the cars parked expectantly outside but only got three steps before his instincts told him that something was wrong. He turned again, and caught the last glimpse of the anomaly compacting as it locked itself. At first he thought it was just his imagination but the fact that Maria was no longer in the garage confirmed it.

"Goddamnit Maria!" he yelled, feeling anger and concern welling up inside him.

"What? What's she done?" Lou ran over and slid to a stop just behind him, panting slightly. Becker didn't look at him, instead his eyes seemed glued to the anomaly that had been the bane of his existence for far, far too long now.

"She's gone back," he told his friend. "She's gone back through the damned anomaly."


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27~The Weight of the World**

"Wait a second, think about what you're doing here," for the thousandth time, Lou tried to talk some sense into Becker as he raced around the garage like an ant, trying to find a spare power pack for his EMD before going after Maria. Lou had tried everything he could think of to get him to see that trying to bring her back was pointless, the excuses ranging from 'we don't know where she's gone' to 'if she didn't tell you, she obviously didn't want you to follow her.' This last one was actually met with a response from the captain; he stopped and stared at Lou as if he was trying to read his mind before continuing his search. Lou was running out of steam, and Becker was still undeterred.

"Ryan, stop," Alison commanded from just behind Lou's shoulder. The two of them exchanged a worried look before refocusing their efforts. Becker, who was still ignoring the pair of them, ran over to another pile of flight crates, this time emerging triumphant. He tucked three spare power packs into the pocket of his jacket and turned towards the anomaly, only to be met by Lou and Alison. Lou folded his arms and stared hard at his friend, willing him silently not to press the matter any further and just go home. Of course, he knew he wouldn't, but at least he could tell her he had tried...

"What?" Becker demanded.

"I'm not going to let you do this," Lou responded. Becker's expression changed from determined to aggressive in less than a second.

"In case you have forgotten, this is Maria we're talking about. Do you really think I'm just going to stand by and let her wonder off, alone, somewhere she could get killed in seconds?"

"I don't like this any more than you do, but just charging off to follow her won't help anyone and will probably get you killed too. For a start we don't even know where she went, and unless you have photographic memory we also don't know the layout of the city. You'll get hopelessly lost before you find her and then we'll have to send out a rescue mission looking for you."

"She wouldn't abandon any of us," Becker's voice was low and threatening, and he tried to stare Lou down. A little difficult, seeing as the younger man was an inch and a half taller than he was.

"I know she wouldn't. But what she would do is coordinate a proper rescue mission, not just run off by herself." Lou hated to be saying this, and if the circumstances were different he would be charging through that anomaly alongside Becker to find her, but the circumstances weren't different, and it wasn't his call. He had been told to stay put, so 'put' was where he was going to stay.

"Come on, Ryan, you're tired, we all are. Trying to find her now would just be silly," Alison spoke up, going for a different tactic than Lou had. Becker just shook his head.

"You don't understand..."

"Don't start talking to me like I'm three. I've been in love too, okay, I know that you think you would do anything to save her, but you're not invincible. I understand perfectly, thank you very much." Lou watched as the two of them stared at each other, almost as if they were having a telepathic conversation that only brother and sister can really do; he'd seen Maria and Seb do it many times; until Becker finally sighed and gave in.

"Fine," he muttered through gritted teeth. "I'll go home, and you never know, I might even get a few minutes of sleep. But I will be here at eight AM tomorrow. If no one else is, I'm going in after her alone." And with that, he turned and strode out of the garage and made for the only empty pickup waiting on the tarmac. Alison and Lou shared another worried look before hurrying after him. Alison slid into the passenger seat of her brother's pickup about three seconds before it squealed down the racetrack and off down the main road. Lou sighed to himself and took one last wistful look at the anomaly, wishing that Maria didn't have to be so darn difficult, before climbing into the driver's seat of another of the ARC's many black pickup trucks.

"What happened?" Natalie voiced from the back seat.

"Maria happened," Lou said, cryptically, before putting the truck in gear and driving off much more civilly towards the Holland's place of residence. He would not enjoy explaining all this to Seb, that was for sure.

George, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to pretty much everything. He had no idea that Maria had been shot, no inkling whatsoever of the team finding Anton and Valerie, and no reason to believe that anything more distressing than the microwave making his hot chocolate explode was happening in the world. This was the main reason why, despite his father's increasingly bad mood since he had returned from work, his sister's absence and his mother's nervousness, George was enjoying his daily game of Halo: Reach on Xbox Live with his friends from school. He did this every afternoon at five PM precisely, except on weekends when he was online all day, and he was only one point away from trouncing them all at a rather hilarious game of Capture the Flag.

This was, as per usual in life, the moment when all Hell broke loose. Firstly, a load of blue flashing lights appeared through the living room window that looked out over the front drive. George's first assumption was that one of the tourists visiting the museum had gone into cardiac arrest (it had happened once, and George had found it sadistically amusing) but when he heard his father come crashing down the stairs George actually decided that something relevant to his life was about to happen. Excusing himself from his Xbox Live Party, and thus ending the game for everyone else involved, he poked his head through the living room door into the hall, where Connor, Abby, Natalie, Lou and two people he didn't recognise were traipsing themselves through the front door. Everyone besides Natalie went straight through to Maria's private medical bay that she had converted out of the obscenely large conservatory the house once had. George shot his sister a 'what's going on?' look, which was ignored so he shrugged and went back into the living room. Voices started up almost instantly but George figured he wasn't going to be needed, and was just settling down in his beanbag when a loud bang and his father's shouting had him running back to the door. George had learnt in the nearly seventeen years of his life that if anything loud happened around his father, it meant that someone was about to get punched. And George, out of curiosity more than concern, wanted to see who it would be.

He froze and nearly fell into the hall as he took in the sight before him. Seb had Lou held up against the wall by the collar of his shirt with a look that could easily destroy a Covenant Supercarrier printed on his face. George carefully took in his mother standing in the doorway to the kitchen, completely gobsmacked and looking like she was about to collapse on the floor, and Natalie attempting to calm Seb down. She wasn't having any success.

"Tell me you're wrong," Seb spat at Lou, forcing George's attention back to his father.

"I don't know, Seb," Lou spluttered, and George got the impression he had missed the important part of the conversation. Seb released Lou in such a way that the younger man was forced to fall onto the floor, where he, sensibly, stayed.

"You'd better be," Seb threatened, before turning and taking the stairs three at a time. A few heavily silenced seconds later his office door slammed, and Lou coughed.

"Are you ok?" Natalie knelt next to him and helped him back to his feet. Lou nodded and leant against the side of the stairs, coughing and rubbing his neck.

"To be honest," he decided, staring at Natalie with a knowing sincerity, "I didn't think he'd take it that well," By the look on his sister's face, George thought she was going to slap him but she didn't. Instead she hugged him before he peeled her off and slipped back into the medical room, leaving the three Hollands in silence. George broke it first.

"Okay. Will someone please tell me what the Hell just happened?"

It was now one o'clock in the morning, a whole two and a half hours after Maria's little disappearing act, and Becker couldn't sleep. He had showered, pointed Alison in the vague direction of the spare room of his flat and even found her a ready-meal in the freezer, but he hadn't touched it. He didn't think he could stomach anything right then, even though he hadn't eaten anything since... He couldn't remember when. He backtracked, to take his mind off Maria mainly, and was astonished to realise that he hadn't had a bite to eat since the night before they had found Valerie and Anton. With a shock he realised that only a small number of days had passed since then. It felt like months.

Unable to keep still any longer, he rolled out of bed and paced into his kitchen, which still had the smells of Shepherd's Pie lingering in it, and from there just went backwards and forwards between it and the living room. He hadn't believed that Lou, of all people, had tried to talk him out of going after Maria. The fact that he had succeeded did nothing to help the situation, but Becker needed someone besides himself to take out his anger on. What really got to him was that Maria had just gone. She hadn't even told him what she was planning; in fact she had basically lied to make sure he didn't see where she was going. Her words, asking him if he trusted her, echoed through his mind for what had to be the three hundredth time, and he stopped pacing, his mind reeling. Why had she asked? Was it some kind of assurance that he wouldn't go after her? Or had she genuinely wanted him to confirm it? Did everything they had mean so little to her that she would just go back through the future anomaly with no regard whatsoever for how he might feel? This last thought made Becker even angrier. All he wanted was to hold her in his arms again, but his intensifying sense of dread told him that his wish might not come true.

With a cry of frustration and annoyance he slammed his fist down on the kitchen counter, trying to release some of his pent-up anger at the day's events. His success was minimal, and a scuffling sound by the entrance to his open plan kitchen made him turn to see Alison standing, still in her pyjamas, staring at him with an expression he couldn't quite put a name to in her eyes. He rubbed his face and attempted to smother his raging emotions; there was no need to take his frustration out on her.

"Are you going to sleep?"

"I can't," Becker sighed and leaned against the counter, his exhaustion from the last few days creeping up on him. Alison nodded but wouldn't meet his gaze, which instantly signalled to Becker that something was up.

"Alison, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm just tired, that's all it is," it was a blatant lie; she was paying far too much attention to the handle of the freezer.

"Alison..."

"Okay, okay, you got me. She...Maria..." Alison huffed, and then everything came out in a rush. "She told me before she left that she was going back," Becker didn't say anything, not trusting himself to speak. In the long, heavy silence that hung between them, Alison finally met her brother's gaze and nearly burst into tears at the haunted expression that had crossed it. He turned away from her and ran a hand through his hair, ordering his thoughts.

"She told you she was going back?"

"Yeah."

"Did she say why?"

"She wanted to find Wilder and end this before anyone else got killed,"

"And you didn't try and stop her?" Becker rounded on his sister, eyes blazing, unable to hold his emotions back any longer. He knew he shouldn't get angry at his sister, none of this was her fault, but he had to release it somewhere.

"Of course I tried," Alison shouted, her eyes brimming with tears. "I can see how much she means to you Ryan and I'm not quite as heartless as you might think. I tried, and so did Lou, but she wouldn't listen to either of us. She only said anything to us in the first place so that we would make sure no one would try and follow her through."

"Lou knows about this? So the entire time you were trying to stop me going after her..."

"It was only because she told us to. Believe me, I would have gone with you without a second thought, and I doubt Lou would have had even a first one." Alison's face was so open and honest that Becker's anger froze in his chest, leaving him feeling cold and alone. So she hadn't wanted him to follow her. Instead she had left him behind, and he didn't know what to make of it. He remembered telling her that he would always be there for her, and remembered making her promise that she would never scare him again. Although, he did also recall that she had never actually done that.

A knocking on the front door of his flat aroused from his mental analysis of his relationship with Maria and he caught Alison's raised eyebrows as he moved past her to answer it. He shared her surprise at visitors at this time of night, but also reckoned that with all the shouting it could easily have been the old woman who lived in the flat below. It wasn't her, however. It was Lou.

"I can't just wait around for her," Lou launched straight into it the second Becker's front door was fully open. Becker stared at him for a full minute, understanding what he was saying and trying to figure out whether he should feel betrayed or thankful. He decided to go with neither.

"Give me five minutes to get dressed," he ordered before turning back into his flat. He heard Lou slip inside and shut the door behind him as he went into his bedroom, and decided to go with his ARC uniform instead of jeans this time. It was far easier to run in combat trousers than in denim; that was a certainty.

Four and a half minutes later, he emerged, to find Alison and Lou in the middle of a whispered conversation. They looked up as soon as he announced his arrival and he could only assume they were talking about him.

"You ready?" Lou asked. Becker nodded once, a gesture that Lou returned before making his way towards the door.

"Hang on, I'm coming too," Alison announced indignantly.

"No, you're not," Becker retorted without even turning round. He scooped his Kevlar jacket off the chair he had dropped it on the last time he had come home completely exhausted and followed Lou out of his flat without so much as a backward glance, all set to go and find Maria or, dismal as it sounded, die trying.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28~The Tough Decisions**

Maria had known what she needed to do as soon as she had arrived back in her own time. At the same time, she had known that everyone would try and talk her out of it, but it had to be done, so she made up her mind to tell no one. Well, no one besides Lou. Someone had to know what she was up to, if only to stop everyone else following her. By "anyone else," she did, of course, mean Becker. As soon as he learned of her plan he would do his best to stop her and then, failing that, insist upon going with her. She couldn't have that. She couldn't bear it if he got hurt because of her. And anyway, in order for this to work, she needed to be alone. Wilder wouldn't listen to her otherwise.

So the first person she sought out upon their return to the present was Alison, having decided that if anyone could get through to Becker it was his sister. And as expected, Alison was less than happy.

"Are you insane?" was the first of many questions.

"Well, maybe," Maria decided. "But this needs to end before anyone else gets killed."

"You don't have to go alone you know. And anyhow, you don't even know where he is,"

"Yes I do. Wilder listens to me. If anyone comes with me then he won't tell me what I need to know and I won't be able to do what I need to do. And I have a fairly good idea of where he'll be."

"Do you really or are you just saying that to shut me up?"

"No, I really do." Alison was silent for a few moments.

"I can't let you do this,"

"I'm not asking you to let me do anything, just cover for me until morning. If I'm not back by then, you can assume something ate me."

"Maria, you are asking me to lie to my own brother,"

"Not lie to him, just don't tell him the details."

"Is there a difference?" Alison was getting more and more worked up over the situation. If she didn't calm down someone would come over and ask what the problem was, and Maria did not need that.

"In this situation, yes. Please, Alison. Wilder has to be stopped and I'm probably the only one who can do that without anyone ending up with a bullet in their skull." Alison didn't say anything for what seemed like an age, and when she did finally speak, Maria almost didn't recognise her voice.

"Maybe," she said quietly, "he doesn't deserve to live." Maria's eyes darkened. She had expected someone to say that, but certainly not Alison.

"Everyone deserves life, Alison, and it's not up to you or me to decide who gets it and who doesn't."

"You could get yourself killed out there,"

"It's a risk I seem to have a habit of taking," After another long pause, Alison let out a breath and gave in.

"Fine. I'll cover for you. But if Ryan figures it out and I can't stop him then I'm coming after you with him, you understand?"

"Perfectly."

"Good," The two women nodded at each other, a kind of forced trust forming between them, before Maria set off in search of Lou. His initial response was the same as Alison's, but he quickly realised that trying to change her mind was completely pointless.

"Then I'm coming with you. You can't expect to find him all by yourself,"

"No, Lou, you need to stay here. I don't think that Alison can quite manage her brother by herself. You two are the people he is most likely to listen to,"

"Right now, I hate you. I will continue to do so for a very, very long time."

"Good to know." Lou rolled his eyes and shook his head in complete and utter despair. Maria just smiled, pleased that he hadn't given her too much trouble.

"Just don't get killed," he told her, before sighing and, muttering to himself, went off towards the ambulances parked along the back of the garage. Maria's smile vanished for a second as the thought of saying a subtle goodbye to Becker flitted through her mind but she plastered it back in place as she sauntered with completely fake nonchalance towards Becker himself. Genuine humour reared its head as she took in his expression at the medic who was clearly chatting up his sister, so the smile she gave him as she slid her hand into his wasn't as artificial as it had been a moment ago. She leant against his shoulder, letting the day's events catch up with her for a few minutes before she had to leave him. Again. He pulled her into a comforting hug and rested his chin on the top of her head while she listened to the beat of his heart and the sound of his breathing. She was quite content just to stay like that all night, actually. But it couldn't last. She sighed, only realising too late that he was about to ask her what was troubling her. So she beat him to it.

"Oh man, Valerie is going to kill me,"

"What?"

"I said," Maria straightened up so that she was talking at him not down to the floor, "That Valerie is going to kill me," Becker smiled down at her, giving her yet more reasons to stay exactly where she was.

"She'll understand,"

"Oh, undoubtedly."

"So why..?"

"Have you ever been sedated?"

"No, actually,"

"It's not very nice. And yes, Val will realise that it was necessary and will, probably, get over it very quickly, but she will still kill me." Becker smiled again and Maria nestled herself back against his chest. The sentimental little voice in her head was telling her that going back through the anomaly was a stupid idea and she should just stay where she was, but the logical voice said that not doing anything would just drag all this out for weeks, maybe months more. Becker yawned, interrupting her inner argument, and Maria laughed, somehow finding this extraordinarily funny.

"Me too, I could sleep for a week," she said through a smile. Lou shouted over to them, saying that they were waiting for them so that they could go home, and Maria gave him a thumbs-up and turned back to Becker. She kissed him, long and soft, before staring into his eyes.

"Do you trust me?" she asked. She needed to confirm it, in her mind thinking "if he trusts me, he won't follow me. He'll trust that I know what I'm doing and will just leave me to it." Becker's eyebrows furrowed and Maria was suddenly afraid that he had cottoned on, or worse, been told what she was doing.

"Of course I do, why?" Relief flooded through her and instead of answering, Maria tightened her grip around his neck and hugged him again, which Becker returned, albeit somewhat slowly. She let it go on for far too long, and decided that it was either now or never.

"Ahh crap," she muttered her internally-rehearsed escape excuse after an almost awkward pause.

"What?" Suspicion was slowly creeping into Becker's tone. That was the last thing she needed.

"I left my MedKit down there. You go on, I'll run and get it and catch you up," She pulled away from him and jogged towards the anomaly locking device, hoping as hard as she could manage that he didn't turn around in the next few seconds. She scooped her MedKit up from the floor and, without giving herself even a second to think twice about what she was doing, Maria stepped through the anomaly.

The ocean blue Audi TT Quattro convertible raced at alarming speeds down the main roads of London, breaking probably every single rule in the book seeing as neither of its two passengers had bothered to pay the congestion charges. The passengers in question had an awkward and hostile silence firmly lodged between them that neither wanted to have, but didn't really have any idea how to start breaking. It wasn't until the driver muttered an apology at sending the occupant of the passenger seat nearly flying into the foot well due to a sudden corner that conversation started flowing, albeit grudgingly, between them.

"Lou, why did you let her go off by herself?" Becker kept his gaze firmly fixed upon the edge of the light cast by the Audi's headlamps as Lou composed an answer.

"Because she wasn't going to let me not let her, if that makes sense," Lou decided, reckoning that answer was much better than 'I really have no idea,' which was probably the more truthful of the two. Becker just nodded, lost in thought again at the reasons why Maria hadn't told him anything.

"Can I ask you something?" Lou asked, five or so minutes later.

"You can ask. Whether I answer or not is another matter entirely,"

"Fine. What would you have done if she had told you?" Becker thought for a moment, still not looking at Lou in case his face gave anything away.

"I would have tried to stop her," he eventually decided.

"And then? When it was blatantly obvious that you weren't going to succeed?"

"I would have gone with her, whether she wanted me to or not," Lou considered this response for a moment and then, upon further reflection of what Alison had told him about how Becker had been acting over the last few hours, said what he hoped was the best and most encouraging thing he could say.

"She didn't tell you because she didn't want you to get hurt by following her, you realise that, right?" Becker made a noise that sounded like a snort, and Lou shot him a sideways glance.

"She has no idea," Becker muttered. Lou sighed.

"I know what you're thinking. That she has caused more hurt by leaving you behind than anything a predator could ever do to you. But just think about it from her perspective. People can die from physical wounds. Emotional ones take longer to heal, sure, but she probably figured that she had more chance of getting you killed if she said something," This time it was Becker's turn to give the sideways looks. Lou wasn't really a Deep and Meaningful kind of guy, and he was making next to no sense due to embarrassment, but Becker got the gist. It didn't make it any better, though.

"If she had told me to stay then I would have," he pointed out.

"Really? I doubt that very much," Lou said, incredulous as always.

"Okay, fine, if she'd just dropped it on me and then run then probably not,"

"I didn't think so," Becker glared at the cocky grin forming at the corners of his friend's mouth but said nothing. His glare turned to a frown as the car's dim interior lights revealed an ugly dark blue smudge peeking out of the collar of Lou's shirt.

"What happened to you? That wasn't there earlier,"

"What, the bruises? Let's just say that Seb didn't take the news of Maria's latest adventure particularly well," Lou let out a humourless laugh. "Although, when I told him I did expect him to hit me. Which he didn't, for which I am eternally grateful."

"So he tried to strangle you?" Becker was starting to remember why he didn't like Maria's brother very much.

"No. Well. Not really. He just made a few dark threats while I was hanging to the wall by my shirt, that was all," Lou noticed Becker's glower intensify and elbowed him halfway through a gear change. "Seriously, you are not going to start a fight with him over me. For one thing that would just be weird,"

"Lewis, what exactly have you been drinking since the last time we spoke?"

"Something of the order of five Red Bulls," Lou admitted. "And don't call me Lewis."

"Great. I'm in a car being driven by a deranged youth who is high on caffeine. My life expectancy has just dropped considerably."

"Oh shut up old man, I get enough of that from Maria,"

By the time the ocean blue Audi TT Quattro convertible pulled up in the ARC parking area, both passengers were laughing with each other as they had once done before their lives got overly complicated.

Anton heard Lou's sports car approach long before he saw it, and wondered for the trillionth time in his life what human beings had been thinking when they thought to use petrol as a propulsion system. He looked down at the floor to check that the holdall he had brought out with him hadn't wondered off of its own accord, suppressed another wave of guilt at leaving Valerie to wake up by herself after everything she'd just been through, and shifted his body weight to the other foot. He really should go back in there and at least wait for Valerie to wake up before explaining pretty much everything and then go off with Lou, Becker and whoever they might have convinced to come with them, but that was about as likely to happen as suddenly finding a stegosaurus around the corner of the ARC building.

Shaking his head at his terrible mental pun and vowing to answer every single question Valerie could throw at him no matter how personal or difficult, Anton pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against and watched the small blue car screech to a stop half a foot away from his leg. Lou got out of the driver's seat and frowned at him, before asking the single most stupid question in the entire Stupid Questions Pamphlet.

"What are you doing here?" He sounded like he was high on something, which only caused Anton to raise his eyebrow further.

"I live here, what do you think I'm doing?"

"No, I mean what are you doing here? Outside? In the rain..."

"Waiting for you, genius. Now can that car of yours fit a third in it or am I going to have to borrow another one?"

"You can drive?"

"I'm from the future, not Mars," Anton retorted, in far too bad a mood to bother with any more pleasantries. Lou shrugged and got back into the car, evidently not quite being able to process everything at once, and Becker asked a far more sensible question.

"What's in the bag?"

"Three EMDs, nine power packs, some night vision goggles and my latest contraption," Anton pulled a handheld device similar to something out of a Star Trek episode out of the holdall and tossed it over to him. Becker recognised it instantly; it was the sonar scanner Anton had been showing Valerie when the two parties had first encountered one another.

"Nice. Wait, three EMDs?" Anton sighed. Was it really that un-obvious what he was trying to do?

"Yes, three EMDs. I am coming with you. The pair of you will get hopelessly lost without me, and as amusing as that would be, I would like Maria to get back here before Valerie wakes up."

"Fair enough," Becker said, giving Anton an odd look. Anton gave him one straight back and picked up the holdall, slipping the scanner back in at the same time. Becker held the passenger seat forwards for him and he practically fell into the back, once again cursing the fact that his height didn't allow him to fit into small spaces very well, and Lou started the engine. Anton decided to ignore the fact that Lou was less than completely sober at this point and made himself comfortable in the back, preparing himself to go back home for the second time in a day.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29~The Truth**

If the big, thick, sturdy wall Maria had built around herself over the years to make her far better at her job came crashing down, she would have been scared. Scared at the fact that she didn't actually have a plan, she had no idea whatsoever what she would do if Wilder wasn't where she hoped he would be, and because she knew that she could get torn to pieces and eaten at any moment without even a warning. These, along with the unerring truth that she had made sure no one would come looking for her if something DID go horribly wrong, would have terrified her right down to her very core. And in fact, they did. She had just learnt to ignore it. But now that she was alone, truly alone, she kept thinking about it, for want of something to occupy her mind if nothing else. Thinking about it, no one was ever truly alone. There was always someone in the house next door or a phone call away if necessary. But here...

No. She was not going down the philosophical path, not now. Now she needed to focus and make sure she didn't become something's midnight snack. Cursing her stupidity for not bringing a torch or something, Maria took her foot off the slight lip in the roof that she had been standing on for the last few minutes and stepped back a few paces. She took a run up and leapt over it, falling three stories and landing in a roll on another rooftop. She froze, not making a sound in case something had heard her and, satisfied that nothing had, stood up. This was it, now she just had to wait. He would either show up or he wouldn't, there was no telling for sure. She didn't have to wait very long to find out.

"You came alone," His cold voice cut the night air like a knife, coming from somewhere behind Maria. She didn't turn to look at him, rather let him walk around the rooftop to face her. It was supposed to be a sign of trust.

"So it would seem," she projected her voice so that he would hear her wherever it was that he was standing.

"What's in the bag?"

"I have no idea. I just picked it up before I left."

"And they let you come alone? How do I know there isn't some trigger-happy ARC security guard hiding behind the nearest air conditioning vent?" She had to admire his imagination, that was for sure.

"No one followed me through. But then again, I have been here for a while now, someone might have turned up."

"Drop the MedKit." Without even the slightest hesitation, Maria pulled the strap off her shoulder and dropped it behind her. She heard Wilder kick it away before the man himself appeared in her peripheral vision.

"Why are you here?"

"I want answers," she turned to face him, knowing that she now had his full attention and that he probably wasn't going to try and run off. He raised his eyebrows, signalling that she should continue, and she noticed how the madness that usually tinted his expression had gone, leaving the man she had once but very briefly known. Maria almost felt sorry for him. Almost. Not quite.

"What were you trying to accomplish, exactly?" she said. Wilder sighed and sat down on one of the air conditioning units on the roof.

"Christine had a vision, a vision that only she and a few select people could understand, myself being one of them. She looked at these predators and saw a means for power, not destruction,"

_Aren't those the same thing?_ Maria thought, but said nothing and let him continue.

"And after her death, which caused a paradox in itself, by the way, I took it upon myself to continue making her vision a reality. It's quite simple, really."

"You haven't answered my question. What was Christine's vision? To have her own little Predator army? You and I both know that those didn't turn up for a long, long time yet." He gave her a sad smile.

"The future is not written in stone," he said quietly. Maria recognised that as a quote from somewhere but didn't consider it important.

"It's not the future for some people," she told him, just as quietly, and watched as his face changed completely, revealing that he was actually still completely mad. He was just getting better at hiding it.

"Why do you try so hard to stop me?" he shouted, standing up. "Every move I make is thwarted by either you or that Godforsaken boyfriend of yours!"

"Why do you keep telling us everything you're doing? You just make the whole thwarting thing so tempting." Maria met Wilder's gaze, mad in both senses of the word, with a practiced indifference that didn't betray any of what she was actually thinking or feeling. "What did you want him for, anyway? Back when you set that T-Rex on the English countryside and kidnapped him." she'd forgotten about that recently, and it sprang to mind when he mentioned Becker.

"Oh. That. I just needed him to tell me something, but he wouldn't. And then he escaped. Which was really annoying, I could have used him as bait." He frowned like a sulking child and Maria gave him an incredulous stare.

"You really didn't want to mention that last bit to me," she said, trying to sound threatening but evidently failing. He just laughed.

"You wouldn't hurt me, Maria, it goes against the very fibre of your being." he kept on grinning as Maria stifled a shudder. He had said more or less the same thing in her latest dream. "And anyway, I keep telling you what I'm doing so that you can watch my brilliant plan unfold, not so that you can try and throw a spanner in the works,"

"Which still doesn't explain one thing," Maria decided, glad that they were back on topic. "Why you insist upon trying to kill everyone at every meeting. If it's some kind of ploy to get us to keep following you, it's not working, especially since that thing with my brother's computer told us that you like setting us little traps." The stony look on Wilder's face told her that she had just figured out precisely what he was trying to do.

"I want to make you a deal," Maria stated, finally getting down to the real reason why she was there in the first place. "You leave us alone, stop trying to kill everyone and don't get in the way of our operations, and we'll leave you to do whatever you want with no trouble from us whatsoever." Wilder sat back down again and silently thought about it. He thought about it for a very, very long time. Maria half expected him to burst out laughing and disappear through an anomaly at any second, but he didn't. He never actually came to a decision, because before he could, that tell-tale growling that the pair of them had been dreading echoed down from the rooftops above them. Wilder knew Maria wasn't armed without even needing to ask, so did the only thing he could do. He looked her in the eyes and told her to run. Confusion, followed by understanding, followed by a complete absence of hostility passed through her expression in less than a second before she turned and did as she was told. As she slipped off the roof, she heard Wilder fire off a gunshot to attract the predators towards him before he too was gone.

"Do we actually have a plan B if anything goes horribly wrong? Just, you know, so I'm sure," Lou silently begged his companions to have an affirmative answer. He had sobered up considerably in the time it had taken them to get to the racetrack, and the gravity of the situation was only just sinking in.

"If by 'horribly wrong' you mean 'we all get ripped to shreds and eaten before we find Maria' then no, we don't," Becker was only paying half of his attention to Lou. The other half was taken up with fine-tuning his infer-red goggles and checking his EMD for the millionth time to give him something to do other than fidget with impatience. Anton, however, seemed to have a slightly less grim outlook on the situation; something which was extremely uncharacteristic of him.

"If a predator does notice you, run for your life, shoot it and avoid narrow alleyways if you can," he said, handing Lou a spare power pack. Lou nodded, glad that one of the three of them knew what they were doing.

"And I still think what we're doing is insane," Anton added, continuing an argument he had been making in the car. "Wondering around outside in the middle of the night without safe suits on. It's insane,"

"If you want to stay behind, no one's stopping you," Becker grumbled as he once again checked his EMD. He had heard Anton go through this a thousand times already and was, quite frankly, sick of it.

"I'm just saying..." Anton let his sentence drop as he noticed Becker's expression.

"Okay, can we go now, please?" Lou stared expectantly at the others, bringing a stop to Anton's complaining and, he hoped, Becker's bad mood. Without giving any verbal reply, Becker turned on his EMD and ran through the anomaly.

For a split second, the future was peaceful and calm and it seemed like their task would be a simple one. It was always like that when they first went through, Becker realised. For that split second, it always seemed so easy. And then the giant insects dived over a nearby building, straight towards them. Becker instantly raised his EMD, ready to shoot them all out of the sky, but Anton grabbed his arm.

"Leave them. They'll ignore us as long as they don't think we're a threat. Shoot one and they'll all come running." Becker nodded and lowered his arm, and the insects past without incident. For an hour and a half the three of them slowly made their way down the main road, Anton in the lead with his head bent over his scanner, attempting to find any trace of Maria. Becker kept an eye on him and tried not to jump at every sound. Lou looked everywhere but ahead, knowing that if something was going to attack them it probably wouldn't be from head on. When Anton stopped suddenly, Lou walked straight into him.

"That's it," the Russian announced, giving Lou a look.

"What? What do you mean 'that's it'?" Becker demanded.

"I mean," Anton said calmly, "That I have no idea where she has gone. I've been following her footprints for the whole time, she's out of range of this thing." he waved his scanner at Becker. "So she's either disappeared or gone a different way. Don't worry she didn't get attacked here. There'd be more of a mess." He turned back to the road in front of them and started looking around for any clues as to where Maria went, and Becker glared at the back of his head. He was getting really annoyed by Anton's apparent lack of feeling towards what they were doing. He clenched his fists, making his fingernails dig into his palms and pain sear down his cut wrist in an effort to stay calm.

"So what do we do now?" he asked in a voice that surprised him by being smooth and steady without the need to control it. Anton didn't turn around.

"Keep looking," he said. Becker and Lou shared a glance before branching off to the sides of the road, mimicking Anton's careful scrutiny. They were at it for over half an hour before anyone found anything.

"Over here," Lou called, and the other two came running over. They had almost given up until that point, but Lou had found the vital clue they had all been looking for. A small mound of dust had formed where someone had opened a door, and they had opened it recently for that mound not to have been blown away in the breeze. They couldn't be certain it had been Maria, but it was the only lead they had. They stood staring at it for a minute before Lou spoke up.

"Shall we?" he asked. Becker and Anton nodded, pushed open the door, and the three of them stepped inside.


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30~Four Seasons In A Day**

Maria had absolutely no clue where she was. She'd gone much farther into the city than she'd intended, farther than she'd ever been before, and now she was lost. On top of that, she didn't know whether or not the predators were still chasing her. She hadn't seen or heard them in ages, but that didn't mean they weren't there anymore.

She stopped running to take her bearings and get her breath back, only the latter of which she could accomplish due to how lost she was, and regretted for the trillionth time not picking up her MedKit before she took off. It had water in it, and she could really have used a drink right then. Instead she dry swallowed and spat, trying to get the taste of blood out of her mouth from running so much, and was just straightening up from her perch on the edge of the roof when she heard it. The growling. Maria froze, fighting the impulse to run, before realising that running was probably the best thing for her to do. Growls echoed all around her, and she knew without even needing to turn and look that there were more than before. A lot more. She briefly wondered how far she could run before they caught her, and without a second thought, launched herself off the roof. Her fingers brushed the railing of the balcony she'd glimpsed a few moments before and she grabbed onto it, slamming face first into the cold iron and nearly wrenching her arms out of their sockets. Ignoring the pain in her arms, she hauled herself up over the railing and shouldered the door on the other side open just as the first withered grey shape appeared over the rooftop where she had been standing moments ago. As she ran through the apartment, she figured that if she could stay one step ahead of them, she could outrun them. This thought made her redouble her speed through the apartment and she burst out onto the landing fully aware of the predators hot on her heels. She took the stairs five at a time, realised she was going too slowly and leapt down whole flights Hollywood style, no longer caring about how much noise she was making. By the time she reached the bottom, her knees were killing her and she felt like she was about two large impacts away from breaking an ankle but she kept running. The apartment building lead out onto a town square that had to be at least three hundred metres across, and Maria stopped for only a moment before deciding she couldn't cross it quickly enough. Instead she ran around the outside of the square and turned down the first side road she came to.

Time became a blur along with everything else as Maria ran on. She didn't know where she was going; she was just trying to escape the predators. She didn't know how long she would be able to keep going, but she had an ever-growing feeling that it wouldn't be for much longer, and the predators were showing no sign of slowing up.

She shouldn't be here, she told herself as she ran. She should have gone back to the ARC with Becker and Lou, apologised very convincingly to Valerie and waited for Wilder to show up again. That would have been the sensible thing to do. But Maria had never been sensible. She always had to be the hero. That was just how she was. But that's the thing with heroic gestures, she told herself. Succeed and you look fantastic. Fail and you leave everyone else with one Hell of a mess to clear up. She had a feeling that she wouldn't be looking fantastic any time soon.

Moments later she stopped thinking altogether as her body pulled the last reserves of energy from every single cell she possessed so that she could keep running. Her legs and arms were burning and her lungs were on fire, she had no idea how long she would be able to keep going for, and she was pretty sure that if she stopped, she wouldn't be able to get going again.

That was why she ran smack into a nine foot wall. The impact scraped a section off her left cheek and she leant against the corner of the alley, forcing air into her lungs. She looked around for another way out but found none. She had gone and run into a dead end. The dozen or so doorways that lead off from the alley had long since been boarded up, and in her current state Maria stood no chance of being able to force one open. That knowledge was certified when three predators came skulking around the corner. Feeling utterly defeated Maria glanced up, and saw another two dozen or so lining the rooftops around her, waiting to pounce. They were going to kill her and then fight over her remains.

"Okay," Maria said out loud in between pants. "Fair play. You win." She pushed herself off the wall and fought to control her breathing as one of the three predators in front of her stepped forwards. She stared it in the eyes, or at least where its eyes should have been, and it twitched its head and growled at her as if it was deciding the best way to kill her. They stood like this for several moments, until one of the other predators growled angrily. At that sound, the one facing Maria raised a clawed fist, and Maria closed her eyes, waiting for the strike.

But it never came.

Becker's aim was true and the whit blast from his EMD hit the predator square in the back of its head. It fell flat on its face, and the two behind it jumped around to face them.

"Go!" Becker shouted, and as he fired his next shot Lou dived forwards, trying to get to Maria before their distraction wore off. Ahead of him, Anton aimed and fired again and again, hitting predators mid-pounce, causing them to topple from the rooftops. Becker focused on the ones headed for Maria and Lou, often but unintentionally causing them to fall and almost land on his head.

"I hate to rush the good doctor," Anton called back to him, "But there are a lot more of them now than there were when we got here," Becker looked up and realised he was right. Where there had only been about thirty or so just a minute ago, there were now hundreds.

"Lou, get her out of there, now!" he shouted, and watched Lou and Maria exchange a few more words before, on a count of three, running towards him and Anton. As they ran past the first predator Becker had shot, it started getting back on its feet.

"Anton, is that normal?" Becker shouted to him.

"Yes, it is," Anton said slowly. "I didn't mention that, did I?"

"No," Becker growled. "You didn't." Anton muttered an apology and fired one last shot before Lou and Maria reached him and he ran with them back to Becker. They stopped for a moment to give Maria a chance to catch her breath properly before setting off once more.

"You know for once I'm not annoyed you ignored me," she wheezed through her panting, shooting Lou a quick grin.

"Just shut up and breathe," Becker snapped, his foul mood from earlier returning in full force now that he had someone to take it out on.

"I'm trying," Maria muttered. Becker was glad she couldn't see his expression through his night vision goggles. It would have certainly had her yelling at him.

"How far away is the anomaly?" Lou asked Anton in an attempt to break the ice. Anton pointed over his shoulder.

"Half a mile or so that way," he informed him, casting Maria a concerned look. "Can you make it?" he asked her.

"Only one way to find out," she said, straightening up and rolling her shoulders. She downed the last of the Lucozade Sport Lou had given her back in the alley and slid the empty bottle back into his MedKit. Becker flipped up his night vision goggles to find a fresh power pack, using it as an excuse to take a proper look at Maria. She didn't look like she was up to running the distance back home, and the look Lou gave him said that he shared his opinion. But if they were going to go, they had to go now.

"Lou, stay with her. Anton, don't miss," he ordered, flipping his goggles back down with a click. Anton nodded and took aim at the fast oncoming predators.

"You ready?" Lou asked Maria.

"Let's do this," she confirmed, and with a final nod, the two of them took off instantaneously. Becker followed close behind and Anton brought up the rear, practically running backwards as he fired shot after shot at the predators. They ran through street after street with Anton shouting out directions until they finally reached an area they recognised, at which point he stopped and focused on just running. That was when Becker realised that they were slowing down. Maria was tiring, and the predators were fast gaining on them. He stopped and took careful aim, taking out as many as he could before sprinting to catch up with the others and do the same thing again. It didn't help much, but it gave them just enough of a lead.

They were three quarters of the way down the main road when Maria stumbled and fell. Lou pulled her up instantly and Becker shouldered open a door, pulling them both inside and closing it again in one swift movement. Maria immediately collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath with tears streaming down her face. It shocked Becker that he was angry enough that the usual pang of sympathy he felt whenever she was hurt or upset didn't come. He stood by the door, shooting the predators as they tried to force their way inside, and let Lou sort Maria out. They came at him for another twenty minutes before they got the message and left to go find something else to eat, namely each other, and Lou's hand was on his shoulder as soon as he stopped firing.

"If you're going to yell at her, do it now and get it out of the way," he said, low enough for Maria not to hear him. Becker gritted his teeth and let out a long sigh before giving his guard position up to Lou and going over to Maria. He vaguely acknowledged the fact that this was the same room he, Connor, Abby and Danny had ducked into when they were here looking for Jack Maitland, but that thought was in and out of his mind in less than a second. Maria was sitting on the floor with her head in her arms, but she was breathing normally and had stopped shaking. He knelt down next to her.

"You okay?" he asked. She looked up briefly and nodded.

"I will be," she said, rubbing her face. Becker nodded but didn't say anything else. He didn't really want to get angry at her, but it had already been building up for too long, and after fifteen or so seconds he couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Damn it Maria, what were you thinking?" he demanded, standing up. Maria gave him a tired look and shook her head.

"What? I have no idea..."

"You know exactly what I mean. Running off out here by yourself in the middle of the night without even telling me where you were going. Do you have any idea how worried I've been?" Maria sighed and rubbed her eyes again before slowly standing up too. She leant against the wall for support and fixed Becker with the same look of practiced indifference she used on Wilder.

"You say that like I'm five," she said. This only angered him further.

"Well maybe you should stop acting like a five year old!"

"What would you have done?" Maria surprised him by raising her voice louder than his. He had never heard her properly shout until now and it was actually quite scary. "If I had told you what would you have done?"

"I would have followed you."

"Exactly. If I'd told you, you would have come with me and almost certainly gotten killed."

"What if I'd been ten minutes, Hell, ten seconds, later? Where would you be then?" Becker ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. "Do you know how I feel when you go wondering off? I already lost you, Maria, twice. Every time you do something like this I go through that all over again. You didn't want me to get hurt? Well you did a fine job of that by yourself." He turned away from her and tried to make himself calm down, clenching his fists so hard that blood appeared on the bandage over his wrist. Maria noticed it too.

"What do you want me to say?" she asked, no longer shouting. "That I'm sorry? Because I'm not. I had my reasons for not saying anything, and I don't expect you to understand them." Becker shook his head slowly, his eyebrows involuntarily creasing in a mixture of pain and confusion. He didn't know this person. The Maria he knew would never say something like this, let alone actually mean it.

"So what now?" his voice wobbled slightly without his consent and he swallowed. "Does my input not matter to you anymore?" Her shoulders dropped and she sighed.

"Of course it does," she said. When his expression didn't change she continued. "Look, I'm not sorry that I ran off, and I'm not sorry that I didn't tell you." Becker opened his mouth to say something in response but she interrupted him, her entire expression changing. Instead of the angry, hard woman Becker had been arguing with, she was now Maria again, the one he recognised.

"But I am sorry I hurt you." she took a step towards him, her eyes no longer cold. "I didn't want to, and I have honestly no idea why I thought I wouldn't. But I did. And I'm sorry." Becker bit his lip and closed his eyes as his anger slipped away from him. He tried to hold onto it; he shouldn't forgive her this easily; but he found himself unable to stay angry with her for any longer. He hated it, it didn't seem right, and now that she had explained, at least partially, what had been going through her mind, he couldn't keep it up. He opened his eyes again and closed the distance between them in one stride, reaching out to comb his fingers through her hair. He cupped her face in his hands and stared into her eyes.

"Promise me you won't scare me again," he whispered. He needed her to say it, just once. She started to shake her head the same way she had last time he had asked, but he wasn't having that this time.

"Maria. Promise me."

"I promise," she whispered back after a slight pause. He smiled and leaned down to kiss her, loving the feeling of her fingers threading themselves into his hair.

"Aww guys, come on, there's a time and a place," Lou whined from over by the door. Maria grinned and broke it off, instead closing her eyes and leaning against Becker. Lou rolled his eyes.

"Can we go?" he asked sardonically, shooting them a disbelieving look. Maria was halfway through sticking her tongue out at him when his eyes widened and panic shot across his features. He mouthed 'don't move' at them and raised his EMD, staring just over their shoulders at something in the shadows. Becker slowly turned his head and out of the corner of his eye, he saw it. The predator. He tightened his grip on Maria with one arm, and reached for his own EMD with the other. Before he could tell Lou to wait a moment, the younger man had fired, and his shot missed. In that same second the predator pounced, and Becker did the only thing he could do. He twisted around so that he was between Maria and the predator, and heard her shout his name as a white hot pain seared across his back.


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31~Just To Be Difficult**

As soon as the four of them rounded the corner by the old ARC building, Anton knew they were in familiar territory. They didn't need him to shout out directions anymore, so they wouldn't realise he wasn't with them for a few minutes at least. Those few minutes were all he needed. He fired a few more shots off at the Predators and checked to make sure Becker wasn't watching him before ducking into a doorway. None of the predators followed him; instead they kept charging after the noisy larger group, leaving Anton to find a nice quiet corner he could sit in for a while. He made his way through the building he'd run into and emerged on the roof, immediately scanning the area for predators. There weren't any. It seemed as though every single one of them was chasing after Becker, Lou and Maria. He took his sonar scanner out of his pocket and turned it on, using the thirty seconds of warm up time to look out over his home. He would always think of this place as home, no matter how long he and Valerie stayed in the past. Too many things had happened here. The scanner bleeped in his hand, bringing him back to the present, and he started slowly pacing around the roof. He saw the other three hiding in a room and smiled to himself. They would be fine. He then turned his attention to the real reason why he had come here. As much as he respected Maria, there was something more important to him than her, and he had come here to do it.

Nothing showed up on the screen as he reached the end of his roof but that was okay. It was a big city. He jumped onto the next rooftop and began again, studying the screen for any little yellow blips besides his own, any sign that his colony had survived. He didn't expect to find anything. He just wanted to be sure. He continued across rooftop after rooftop until he had left the ARC team far out of range and red was beginning to colour the horizon. He didn't need his night vision goggles anymore so took them off and tucked them into his jacket pocket without taking his eyes off the scanner. A little voice in his head told him that he wasn't being careful enough but he ignored it and kept looking.

Suddenly he saw yellow flash in the top corner of the on-screen map, and his heart flipped. He was about to smile when his instincts told him to turn around and he did, just in time to avoid the Predator's swinging claws. The darn thing had crept up on him from behind, and he had only programmed his scanner to detect human life. He was an idiot. He turned to run but the predator jumped first, knocking him onto his back. His head cracked against something, a rock on the roof maybe, and as his vision slowly blurred from the image of a predator standing over him, he realised he hadn't been so scared in seventeen years.

_"Oh come ON Anton," Valerie whined for the four hundredth time. "Just ten minutes." When he didn't budge, her attempt at an adorable face changed to a mischievous grin. "Or are you scared?" This got his attention far more effectively. No way was he going to be ridiculed by this eight year old girl. He was ten, double figures, and as a result was older, smarter and generally better than her._

_ "I'm not scared of anything," he said, and allowed his pride to lead him after her down the stairs and towards the door. "I'm just saying there's a reason why Katie says we have to put those suits on before we go out." _

_ "What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Valerie chimed, and Anton realised she'd been waiting to say that all along. _

_ "No, but it can hurt us," he muttered. She didn't hear him, and was already halfway through opening the outer door. The big, heavy, soundproofed thing was at least twice her size and four times her weight, but sheer determination was pulling it open for her. _

_ "Valerie, Katie said..." Anton began, but Valerie turned, gave him a withering stare, and actually stamped her foot. _

_ "Do you always do what Katie says?" she demanded, and without waiting for an answer slipped out of the door. Anton groaned inwardly, torn between following her out or going and getting one of the grown-ups to bring her back. With a sigh he chose the former. Being the older and supposedly more responsible of the two, he was the one who would get into trouble if anything happened. Muttering the worst Russian swear words he could think of, he stepped out into the sunshine, and was relieved to note that she had only gone two steps away from the door. _

_ "That's rude," she jabbed. _

_ "You don't even know what I said," he countered, desperately hoping that she didn't. _

_ "No, but I know it was rude." _

_ "Shut up Valerie." For once, Valerie did as she was told, and the two of them crept along the dirt track, every sound their footsteps made loud in their ears. Even if they didn't get caught, Anton decided, they would never do this again. Valerie on the other hand was having a whale of a time, whatever that actually meant. She was positively beaming, and when a slight breeze picked up and wafted down between the buildings she stopped and closed her eyes._

_ "Have you ever felt the wind on your face before?" she asked him, her voice a barely audible whisper. He thought for a moment. He had, actually, once. He couldn't remember the specifics of that once, he had been too young, but he could remember wind, a lot of shouting, and a plane. He didn't answer her question and she didn't seem to care. She was having too much fun. Anton, however, was growing increasingly more nervous as time passed. Every second they spent outside left them in even more danger from being found by the predators, and even if they didn't become dinner, someone would go downstairs and realise they'd left the door open. Which was another thing that made Anton want to go back. They were endangering their colony by doing this. As soon as that door opens the soundproofing fails, and everyone becomes a target. _

_ "Valerie, we really should go back now," he whispered. She ignored him, instead moving further down the road. "Valerie!" he hissed after her. _

_ "You can go back if you want to, I'm not stopping you," she said. Anton looked between her and the door back home and cursed again, choosing to follow her. _

_ "You are going to get us killed," he told her. She just smiled, causing him to get even more annoyed. He looked down at his watch._

_ "Ten minutes are up," he said, even though they weren't. He just wanted to get back home and close the door and be safe. _

_ "You are such a goody-two-shoes," Valerie shouted, turning on him. That did it. That one shout was all it took for the Predators to signal their presence. Anton looked around the rooftops, like Katie always told them to do. There were only three of them, and they were closer to the door than the predators were to them. He grabbed Valerie's arm, but she was frozen to the spot. _

_ "Valerie, run!" he yelled, and she bolted for the door at the same time the predators did. With a sickening feeling Anton realised that if they got between them and the door they were finished. He grabbed Valerie's hand and pulled her along even faster, but they were too slow and had gone too far. He pulled Valerie down to the floor as all three predators sailed past where their heads had just been, and when he stood up it finally sank in just how much of an idiot he was. He tugged on Valerie's arm and moved her behind him, he didn't know why, he just did. Something he could only describe as pure terror washed through him, and he almost fell over. A shrill whistle from behind the Predators made two of them turn around, only to get shot in the face by someone Anton couldn't see, but his focus remained entirely on the third, which had stayed facing him and Valerie. Then everything happened at once. The predator lunged, a gunshot rang off, Valerie screamed, and pain exploded behind his left eye._

_ When he woke up it was dark and the colony had moved again. Valerie was sitting next to his bed playing with the ears of her stuffed toy rabbit, and two people were shouting at each other in the next room. He noticed he had a headache, and when he did move a pain so intense that it made him want to cry speared through the top left quarter of his face. He felt around it with one hand and found bandages, so his first assumption was that the predator had got him. Valerie chose that moment to look up, saw that he was awake and jumped up, hugging him around his neck. He croaked a feeble 'ow' before she let go, and he saw that she'd been crying. Before she could say anything, however, Katie came into the room. Valerie bit her bottom lip and shrank back into the corner, which made Anton wonder what had happened while he had been asleep. _

_ "How're you feeling?" she asked, her voice completely devoid of sympathy, not that Anton had expected any. _

_ "My head hurts," he said truthfully._

_ "Well that's not surprising," Katie told him. She then told him as bluntly as possible that the predator had sliced three neat lines into the side of his face, and it was unlikely that he would be able to see out of his left eye anymore. Then she called him a complete and utter moron, and then she left. Feeling immensely satisfied that he wouldn't be in any more trouble, and completely forgetting that Valerie was still in the room, Anton fell asleep, where he remained for considerably longer than he had the first time._

Valerie couldn't sleep either. She'd woken up at somewhere around four in the morning feeling confused and sad, and the only person she actually wanted to talk to wasn't where he was supposed to be. She'd asked the guy manning the ADD where he'd gone, only to be told that about three hours previously, a substantial pile of equipment had gone missing and the CCTV cameras showed Anton, Becker and Lou driving off somewhere. They'd apparently gone back to the future anomaly, where Seb and George Holland were now waiting upon their return. She asked why they'd gone in the first place, and it became obvious that she'd slept through a very important event. Maria had gone back through.

Valerie paced through the corridors of the ARC and found herself at the medical bay, where Connor and Abby were sleeping. Connor had was snoring with his mouth wide open, and Abby was trying to curl up into a ball but couldn't thanks to the bandages around her ribs.

"There's always someone left behind, isn't there?" The voice behind her made her jump and she turned to see Natalie standing in the doorway. She looked exhausted.

"Usually," Valerie agreed. Natalie moved and stood beside her at the window from Maria's office into the Medical Bay.

"It's funny," she said absently, "How you think everything's over, at least for now, and then something else happens and everyone goes running off again." She sounded like she was talking more to herself than Valerie.

"I wouldn't call it funny exactly, but there is a certain irony involved,"

"He didn't tell you he was going did he?" There was a bitter edge to Natalie's voice. She didn't need to explain who she was talking about. Valerie could figure it out.

"In his defence I was unconscious, but I don't think he would have even if I wasn't."

"Lou didn't tell me either," Neither of them really knew what point they were trying to make, it was just nice to complain to someone once in a while. Silence stretched between them for a few moments before Natalie spoke up again.

"What do you think's happening over there?" she asked.

"I would hazard a guess that they found her, they were almost back, and then something went horribly wrong. That's what usually happens."

"Oh," was all Natalie could think of to say. She was sorry she'd asked. Then, as if on cue, the two of them heard a car approaching and a lot of people started shouting outside. The outside door to the medical bay was thrown open and Maria barged in, threw a pile of spare bed sheets off the only remaining bed in the room, and started firing instructions at Seb and Lou, who were carrying Becker between them. Anton was nowhere to be seen. Maria quickly washed her hands and covered them in antibacterial hand wash before turning to Becker, now lying face down on the bed. Seb made some sort of excuse and left again, leaving Maria and Lou with their patient. Natalie edged into the room.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Predator," Lou told her without looking up.

"Tore straight through the Kevlar," Maria continued. She didn't look up either, and Natalie found it quite intimidating how the two of them worked like clockwork, each knowing what the other needed without having to ask or be told.

"Where's Anton?" Valerie asked from behind Natalie. Neither Maria nor Lou said anything, but the glance they shared wasn't particularly encouraging. Valerie ran through the medical bay, hoping to corner Seb before he left and get her answers from him. Maria exhaled loudly and pulled a needle out of a box.

"Morphine," she said to Lou, who nodded and immediately began setting up a drip. From her position by the door, Natalie could see that both of them were tired and covered in dirt and sweat. She wondered what the predator had done to Becker, but as soon as Maria moved out of her line of sight she wished she hadn't been so eager. A glistening, dirty red mess covered his back, and for a moment Natalie thought there was nothing either Maria or Lou could do.

"Connor, can you throw me that water bottle please," Maria ordered, and Connor, who Natalie hadn't even noticed wake up, threw his water across the room. Maria caught it and started pouring it across Becker's back, and Natalie almost sighed in relief as most of the red flowed off and onto the floor.

"It's not too deep," Lou said. "That's good, right?"

"As long as we hurry up and close it then he'll be fine," Maria decided, and Lou actually smiled. "Nat?" Maria startled her niece out of her thoughts by turning her attention to her. "Can you go and find Alison please? Wake her up if you have to," Natalie nodded and left, wondering who would even know where Alison was at that moment in time.

Alison, funnily enough, had gotten bored with waiting, and had taken her brother's car to the ARC, where she hoped to gain some answers. She probably drove straight past Natalie on her way. By the time she got there all the excitement had died down, and she marched into the Medical Bay just as Maria came out of the bathroom.

"Where is he?" She demanded. "And don't say he's in there," Maria took in the look of death Alison was giving her and wondered for a moment if she was going to regret saying this.

"He's in there," she said, and Alison was very tempted to hit her. "But he's okay; you don't need to worry about him,"

"What do you mean; I don't need to worry about him?" Alison exclaimed. "He's my brother,"

"Alison, he's fine," Maria said.

"Let me see him." she demanded, and Maria indicated that she should go into the medical bay. Connor and Abby were both sitting up in bed and Lou had just finished mopping the floor, and all three looked up with worried expressions when she entered.

"You sad he was okay!" Alison screeched at Maria the second she saw her brother lying on the bed.

"He is," Maria said calmly. "He's asleep, nothing more. He will continue to be asleep until midday tomorrow, by which time he should have healed enough to not pull the stitches out just by moving,"

"Fine. I just hope you got what you went for," Alison said.

"So do I," Maria agreed, leaving Alison even more confused than ever. Before she could say anything else, however, the back door opened and Valerie ran through the room and out the other side. Seb appeared in the doorway looking completely bewildered.

"What happened?" Maria asked him.

"I just told her everything you told me and she started crying. Don't blame me, I didn't do anything," Seb held up his hands in surrender. Alison rolled her eyes.

"I'm going after Valerie. Maria, do you think you can try and not upset anyone else?" Without waiting for a reply she ran after Valerie, leaving a very awkward silence behind her.

"That was mean," Connor piped up after a minute.

"No, it wasn't, it was perfectly justified." Maria turned to Lou. "I'm going to go home, I'll see you tomorrow. Don't stay here all day," Lou rolled his eyes and settled down in a chair and Maria left, accepting Seb's offer of a lift home.


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32~The Brave and the Nefarious**

Nothing happened the next day. Lou went home to sleep at some point in the afternoon, Connor and Abby spent all day in the Medical Bay, Jess did absolutely nothing at all, Valerie cried, thinking she'd lost Anton for good this time, Alison tried to calm her down, Lester and Burton had an argument, Seb and George sat in front of the anomaly and hatched a plan, Natalie spent the day with her mother, and Becker slept. There were no anomalies, no creature sightings, and no intruder alerts. At first everyone thought it was a welcome change from the complete anarchy their lives had become over the last month, but then it got boring.

Connor and Abby tried to make conversation with the medic who'd taken over from Lou, but he was a very grumpy man. He merely grunted or gave one-word answers to everything they asked him, and soon they just stopped trying. They had learnt previously in the day that Becker talked in his sleep, and so the two of them spent their time trying to decipher what he was saying. They didn't have much luck, but what they did figure out was extremely funny.

Seb and George decided that they would stay at the anomaly site for one week. If Anton didn't get back by then, they would assume the worst had happened and start trying to close the darn thing. Seb already thought that the predators had got him, but Maria had said that he had literally been there one second and then gone the next. The most likely scenario was that he had deliberately stayed behind for whatever reason, and something had picked him off as easy prey. If his son thought the same thing, though, he wasn't showing it.

Jess sat at the ADD and listened to the low murmur of her bosses arguing with each other. Even through the soundproofing in Lester's office, they were shouting at each other loud enough to be heard all the way from the Ops room. Jess thought they would still be heard on Mars, the way they were going. She sighed and loaded up a game of solitaire on the ADD's main screen. She'd installed it when she'd first started working at the ARC, and there really was nothing else to do.

Alison carefully pulled the door to Valerie's bedroom shut and started making a cheese sandwich. The smell of bacon faintly tinged the air, and she found a used frying pan sitting on the hob. Anton had left everything where it was, as if he'd just gone to the bathroom and would come back again in a minute to clean up. She understood why Valerie was so upset. Anton had disappeared without even telling her why or where he was going, just like Maria had, but this time there wouldn't be a search and rescue party. She'd already asked Lester, and he'd said that even if they could find enough people (Apparently herself, Seb and Valerie didn't count because they weren't on the ARC's payroll) they didn't have even the slightest idea where to start. Finding him, Lester had said, was impossible. So they just had to wait and hope he showed up of his own accord.

At first, Anton didn't even know where he was either. He'd had that dream of his past, which had been more like reliving an already far too vivid memory, and then woken up in a dark room that looked strangely familiar. Unlike in his dream, he didn't have a splitting headache, only a small one, and so this time sitting up wasn't much of a problem. He could vaguely hear voices coming from the other side of the wall and slowly inched the door open. The hallway threw a shaft of natural light into the room and he squinted into it, delaying him for a few seconds, before he proceeded to the edge of the hole in the wall that had been made to accommodate more people. He could hear the voices perfectly now, and it was obvious they were talking about him. Three of them. Two women and a man.

"Harriet, you don't think that," the first woman said.

"I do," said the second, "It makes sense."

"Oh come on! Even suggesting that is like saying that Tommy stole my laptop. Possible but completely stupid,"

"As much as I hate to stick up for him, Zoey has a point," the man spoke up. "What evidence do you have?"

"The fact that he just mysteriously vanished the moment the predators turned up, maybe?" Irritation layered the second woman's voice.

"You thought he was dead," the first said.

"Well yeah, but that was before we saved his ass just now."

"We're getting off the subject again," the man grumbled.

"Look, Harriet, whether he did betray us or he didn't is completely irrelevant. What's important is finding out if anyone else survived with him." the first woman sounded tired of the conversation.

"And what to do with him now," the man put in.

"Oh shut up, Freddy, you're not helping."

"Do you think anyone else got away?" the second woman, Harriet, asked quietly.

"I know what you're thinking and I'm telling you now, stop it," the other woman demanded. "I know she's your sister and all but it's been a month, Harriet."

"They were best friends. He wouldn't have... Would he?"

"You're the one thinking he set the predators on us in the first place. You tell me." The conversation continued, and a few minutes later Anton knew exactly who he was listening to, and couldn't stop the grin from spreading across his face. He'd found them. His colony. A more accurate statement would be that they'd found him, but that was beside the point. The grin vanished when he realised that they were discussing the possibility that he had somehow deliberately led the predators to the old settlement, and for a second a flare of betrayal crossed him. But the argument was well justified; he had been the first one out.

"We can't automatically assume they're all alive, Harriet," the other woman said loudly, bringing Anton's attention back to the conversation. "Because you know as well as we do..."

"I know Monica; you don't have to keep reminding me. Look, when he wakes up, I'll talk to him, but I don't need you two telling me that I'm wrong. I'll find out for myself soon enough." Harriet snapped.

"Or you could just ask him now," Freddy said, and the entire room went silent.

"Anton," Harriet shouted after an awkward thirty seconds. "You can come in now," her voice was dripping with sarcasm, and Anton tried to feel less like a naughty schoolboy and more like he actually belonged here. To his surprise and dismay, he failed. He stepped out from behind the wall and through the hole, coming face to face with the three voices he'd been listening to. They belonged to Monica Wells, the best thing the colony had for a doctor, Freddy Jackson, their official technical guru, and Harriet Bates, daughter of the colony's leader, Katie. She was also Valerie's younger sister. He stared at them, a little shocked at how much they had all changed in just under a month, and they stared back, none of them really sure of what to say. Automatically Anton folded his arms and leaned against the wall, the way he always did whenever he was part of what he called Committee Conversations. There wasn't even a conscious thought involved and he didn't realise he'd done it until Harriet got up off the chair she'd been sitting on.

"Don't make yourself too comfortable," she said darkly, and she moved past Anton through the hole in the wall. Freddy followed her after a moment, giving Anton a look that showed he was torn between welcoming him back and rejecting him as Harriet had. Monica didn't stir until Freddy had been gone for a while. When she finally did move, it wasn't in a way Anton had expected. She stood up, crossed the room, and hugged him. Hard.

"Sorry," she said when she finally let go and saw Anton's dubious expression. "I, for one, have missed you." Anton was genuinely surprised. He hadn't thought the two of them were particularly good friends. Then again, he had thought Valerie was his only friend.

"It's good to be back," he said, letting Monica lead him over to the sofa she'd been sitting on before.

"Don't worry about Harriet," Monica continued, "I think she takes the whole 'Colony Leader' thing far too seriously sometimes," Anton frowned.

"What happened to Katie?"

"Killed in the attack. That's another reason Harriet doesn't like you very much at the moment. She lost her whole family."

"Valerie's still alive." Anton said, skipping the platitudes as usual. Monica didn't look surprised. Instead she thought for a moment before shouting Harriet's name out to the world.

"You can tell her that, not me," Monica decided, just as Harriet herself re-appeared. She took one look at Anton and started to turn around again.

"I can take you to Valerie," he said before she had the chance to get all the way back into the hallway. "And I can take the colony somewhere safe." Harriet turned back round again, her expression unreadable, and Anton guessed that she didn't entirely believe him. He wasn't surprised. He wouldn't have in her shoes.

"Monica, can you give us a moment?" Harriet's tone of voice didn't leave Monica much room for argument but she smiled and slipped out of the hole, leaving the two of them alone in the room. "How do I know you're telling the truth?" Harriet demanded.

"You don't really think I betrayed everyone, do you?" Anton knew she didn't, not really. She sighed and the anger on her face vanished.

"No, not really. It was just the first reason I came up with, that's all,"

"I understand that,"

"Where is she? Valerie, I mean."

"Safe. In the same place I was planning to show you."

"Nowhere around here is safe, Anton, you know that."

"Well then I guess it's a good thing that where I'm talking about isn't around here, isn't it,"

"You mean you found an anomaly?"

"Sort of." Anton was once again pulled down onto the sofa, and Harriet stared at him intently.

"Tell me everything," she said. So he did.

_Wilder analysed the screens in front of him, carefully planning where he was going to place his anomalies and judging who would be the biggest threats. Maria Holland and Lou Walker, probably. Maria would most likely shut Connor, Abby, Becker, Jess, and probably Lester and Burton in the Medical Bay while she, Lou, that future woman and Becker's sister fought him off. Quinn was still in hospital, and Seb Holland wouldn't be able to get there in time. It was possible that Lester would try to help, he had done that before, and unlikely but still plausible that Burton would do the same. Jess wouldn't even think about it, she'd just sit under a table and try not to scream. Becker, even if he was awake by then, wouldn't be able to do anything. Even if his injuries didn't prevent him, Maria wouldn't hear of it. Connor and Abby too, now that he thought about it. Now, had he left anyone else out? Nope, he'd covered all the major players, now all he needed to do was plan accordingly. He had to think like Maria. What would she do as soon as she knew something was going on? She would override Lester's command to seal the building, get all the non-essential staff out unharmed, and then return to the task at hand. She would then lock everyone in the medical bay and take up a vantage position in Ops. Wilder smiled to himself. He knew where to put his anomalies. All that needed to happen now was that no one did anything unexpected._


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33~Battle**

The next day started out just as boring as the one before. The only difference was that Lester and Burton had stopped arguing, and were now ignoring each other completely. Burton wouldn't even set foot in Lester's office. This was actually worse than having them at each other's throats, because everyone knew that when they were arguing, they were actually getting things done between them. This, on the other hand, meant that the ARC literally ground to a halt.

No one really seemed to mind, though, seeing as the last thing anyone wanted was more work to do. Maria put her feet up on her desk and clicked her email inbox open, absent-mindedly filing her finger nails at the same time.

"Alison wants to kill you," Lou announced, shutting the door between the office and the medical bay with more force than strictly necessary. He draped his jacket over the arm of the sofa and leaned on her desk.

"Tell me something I don't know." Maria told him without even looking up. "Waterstones still don't have my book, by the way."

"How tragic," he said sardonically. "I'm serious, she wants your head," Maria groaned and sat up.

"What for? I haven't done anything even remotely life threatening to anyone in the last twelve hours. I've been asleep for most of it."

"Because Becker still hasn't woken up."

"I told her he'd wake up at midday, roughly. It's only half past ten. Tell her to get a watch or something."

"She also wants you to apologise."

"Well we all know that's not going to happen." Maria regained her previous position at her desk and Lou gave her a hard stare.

"You're a horrible person." Maria laughed at him and went back to her emails, none of which were particularly interesting or relevant. Lou rolled his eyes and went back into the medical bay, and for another half an hour, nothing happened in the ARC.

Then all hell broke loose.

The first indication they got was when Jess screamed, very loudly. Loud enough in fact for Lou and Alison to hear her in the medical bay. Maria practically rolled off her chair and raced out into the corridor to discover the reason for this sudden upset, and immediately wished she'd stayed in bed that morning. Jess, sitting slap bang in the middle of Ops at the ADD, was surrounded by four anomalies. They formed a square around her with another in the doorway to the main corridor, and even as Maria watched, another opened just in front of Lester's office. The man himself looked up from his pile of paperwork with a look of irritation on his face, quickly to be replaced by terror. The alarms didn't even go off, but this was a trivial matter compared with what was now unfolding. A predator crept out of the anomaly in the corridor and looked around, only to be shot in the head with an EMD by a passing soldier. The second it hit the ground, more came through after it, and it only took Maria half a second to figure out what was going on. Wilder had succeeded, and he obviously wasn't interested in accepting her terms.

"Jess," she whispered into the com system, hoping Jess had an earpiece in. "Come up here. Slowly," Jess, white as a sheet, navigated backwards around the ADD and up the ramp, almost standing on Maria's toe. The five predators took their time, analysing the room and growling at each other every few seconds.

"Go into the medical bay and don't come out," Maria told Jess. She quickly obeyed. Maria looked at Lou, who was also turning an unnaturally pale colour.

"Lock them in," she told him. "Jess, Becker, Connor and Abby, lock them in the medical bay," Lou nodded once and ran back inside, just as Connor and Abby came out. Before Maria could even frown, Connor explained.

"Something really big is about to happen. You're going to need all the help you can get." Maria nodded her confirmation and accepted an EMD from one of Becker's men. He handed them out to everyone on the ramp, including Lester, and then distributed them among the soldiers waiting down in Ops.

"What's going on?" Valerie had materialised behind Maria's shoulder.

"Nothing at the moment. They're just sitting there," As soon as the words were out of her mouth, all five predators jumped at once. None of them reached their targets, but the sound of them hitting the floor was covered up by the deafening growl of dozens more from the other side of the anomalies in the room.

"Get everyone out," Maria shouted above the noise at one of the soldiers. "All the non-essential personnel, get them out of here."

"But Lester said the building needs to be sealed..." the soldier began.

"I don't care what Lester said, my orders override his, now do it!" The soldier didn't think twice before running out of the room and down the corridor, banging on doors as he went.

"Lou and Alison stay up here. Valerie, Lester, down there. Sorry Sir but you're going to get your suit dirty," Lester gave her a withering stare but followed his instructions. "Connor go left, Abby go right, stick to the walls." Maria followed Lester and Valerie into Ops, and not a second after everyone was in their position, the predators started pouring in.

As it happened, Maria had been about half an hour off in her estimate of when Becker would wake up. The drip in his arm started running out of morphine earlier than she had anticipated, and as a result Becker was conscious enough when the screaming, shouting and shooting started to know that something was going very badly wrong. He forced himself to fight the drowsiness the drug was giving him and, defying every cell in his body, he opened his eyes. His vision was blurry and his head had gone fuzzy but he had done this before, and knew that normal thought processes don't exactly work when one is in this state. So instead he focused on one thought and one thought alone. He had to get the drip out of his arm. Then he could try and regain some semblance of order around here. He could feel the liquid slowly streaming into the back of his left hand, so concentrated on his right, also making sure he didn't shut his eyes again. At first all he could manage was to twitch his fingers slightly, but soon his whole hand lifted. It was heavy, and thanks to the morphine he really didn't want to do anything at all, but he forced his hand to find the other and removed the tape from the needle. Pulling it out hurt, but his mind instantly began to clear as soon as it was free. Okay it didn't do it particularly quickly, but it was better than nothing.

Next he had to sit up. This was a little trickier, and involved him lying still and regaining as much command over his body as he could for a few minutes, but eventually he was able to use his elbows as a prop and push himself up. Or at least, he would have been. He gave a wordless cry as intense pain burned down his back and he fell onto the bed again, his mind now almost completely free of any of the morphine's fuzziness. He reached a hand up to his shoulder and felt his scar, the one that had been there for a year now. But it wasn't that one. The pain was starting at the other shoulder. He reached across and felt stitches, and a defeated feeling seeped into him. Then he remembered. He and Maria had argued, then they'd kissed, and then the predator had appeared. He hadn't even thought about it, he'd just spun so that he was between Maria and it, and then he'd blacked out. He imagined that the predator had given him a brand new scar.

More gunshots brought him out of it and determination replaced defeat, as it always did with him, and he gripped the edge of his bedside table. Using that arm and not the muscles in his back he pulled himself up into a sitting position, and had to wait a minute for the pain to subside. On an up-note, he could think clearly now at least. He swung his legs off the bed, realised that Maria hadn't even bandaged him up yet, and pulled himself to his feet. He swayed for a few seconds, trying not to fall over again at the dizziness that washed over him with the wave of pain in his back, and stumbled into Maria's office. He leaned in the doorway trying to get his breath back, and took in the scene outside through the window wall. He could see an anomaly with predators pouring out of it, Lou and Alison shooting at them with their backs pressed against the wall. He watched as Seb ran up, made a motion with his head to Alison, and continued firing at the predators as she ran down into Ops and out of sight. Watching all of this was a little strange as he couldn't hear much through the soundproofed glass, but Becker got the general idea. He caught sight of a sip-up hoodie; probably Lou's, draped over the arm of the sofa and put it on. He was about three steps away from the door when Jess came out of the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" she cried. Becker half-turned to look at her and noticed that her hair was a mess, very unlike her, and she was scared. He didn't blame her.

"You need to get back in bed," Jess started towards him but he managed to reach the door first, and he slipped out before she could stop him. Taking a deep breath, he surveyed the situation. Seb and Lou were off to his right battling the predators. Neither of them had noticed him, which was good. He would need Lou in a minute but not just yet. Down in Ops, Maria, Alison, Valerie and Lester were standing in a circle, each facing one of the anomalies. Connor and Abby were off to the sides tackling the stream that came through the anomaly in the corridor and Burton, surprise surprise, was nowhere to be seen. His soldiers were dotted around the room too, but there were only four or five of them. It looked like most had left with the non-essential staff. Becker knew what he had to do. Predators were starting to get back up off the floor, but no one else knew that the more you shot them, the less effect the EMDs had. Valerie looked like she was halfway through explaining this to Maria at that moment, but Becker had his own idea. He turned back to Lou and Seb, still oblivious to his presence, and waited a moment for there to be a lull in the onslaught of predators. Then the opportune moment came.

"Walker, with me." he said loudly, and Lou jumped round. He took in Becker and looked him up and down, before lingering on the dangerous look in his eye and glancing at Seb. Seb nodded and Lou followed Becker down the ramp. Becker went around behind the anomalies, managing to avoid most of the predators, and out into the corridor. He went straight to the armoury and, once there, over to the back of the room.

"I don't suppose there's any point in asking what you're doing up is there?" Lou asked.

"None at all," Becker said, pulling a box of power packs out of his way.

"That's my jacket." Lou continued.

"I thought it was," Becker found what he was looking for, a keypad and combination dial set into a particular part of the wall.

"I happen to like that jacket," Lou said.

"I think we have some bigger problems right now Lou," Becker punched in the code and turned the dial back and forth between the right numbers.

"If you get blood in it, I will make you pay to have it dry cleaned,"

"I will do my best not to get blood in it, okay? Now come here and give me a hand." Becker pulled the door to the hidden safe open and reached inside. It was a big safe; it stretched from his head height down to his knees and was just under his arm's length deep. But what was important to them right now was the contents of that safe.

"You didn't..." Lou gave him a disbelieving look.

"Of course I did," Becker confirmed as if it was obvious, and stepped out of the way. He watched Lou's expression change from disbelief to impressment in a matter of seconds, and couldn't help smiling a little. That safe was piled high with real, common-all-garden, very lethal weaponry. Everything from the standard ARC issue H&K G36 rifles to his personal favourite, a Mossburg 500 pump-action shotgun, filled the steel container. No one else on the entire ARC staff knew about all this; they were things he had either saved from the old days or gone out and bought since, and he was glad he had. They were going to be needed now.

"Everyone gets a rifle and a pistol," he told Lou. "There should be enough in there for everyone. Hand me the shotgun would you, I can't bend down."


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34~The Calm After the Storm**

"It's only a matter of time before we shoot them and they don't even go down."

Valerie's words still rang in Maria's ears, even though she'd said them a full ten minutes ago. But she was right. She hadn't realised before, but about a minute or so after she shot them, the predators stood up, shook themselves, got their bearings, and attacked again. Even with this many people fighting against them, they just kept coming. When Seb had coincidentally turned up when it all started she thought this would be a simple matter of 'shoot them and then put them back before they woke up.' But she should have realised by now that predators aren't, and never have been, easy to deal with. Things would be a hell of a lot easier if they, like everything else in this world, stayed down when they got shot. They didn't struggle, didn't put up a fight, they didn't even twitch. They just hit the floor and stayed there, like sensible little things. Okay so EMDs didn't fire real bullets, but everything else she'd come up against with one had gone down and stayed down. She liked it when things did that. It made her life so much easier.

For a moment nothing was running at her and she had the chance to look around at how everyone else was doing. Next to her, Valerie, Alison and Lester were holding their own, Connor and Abby seemed to be keeping the predators off each other, not themselves, and Seb was doing just fine by himself. That seemed wrong to Maria, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why. She was about to dismiss it when it hit her. Lou. Lou should have been up there with Seb. Where had Lou gone? She tried to look around in greater detail and find him but the predators soon rectified the fact that she didn't have her hands full and her attention was diverted back to them for another few minutes.

"It's only a matter of time..."

The next time she had a breather, someone shouted her name. She looked up and flicked her hair out of her face in the same movement and was relieved to see Lou standing in front of her. He handed her a rifle and a pistol and winked. It was as if he'd been reading her mind and had found what they needed to win this.

"Where did you..."

"Ask him." Lou indicated at Becker before running off back to Seb. Maria tucked the pistol into her belt and shouldered the rifle.

"I'm not going to say anything," she said as Becker stood next to her, shotgun raised.

"Good," was all he said. And then it started again.

There were no more words, just the repetitive sound of gunfire. It reminded Maria of Afghanistan, but then again, quite a lot of things did these days. She aimed and fired again and again, finally seeing the predators stay where she put them but feeling none of the joy the other people in the room were expressing. Beside her, Becker's shotgun exploded repetitively. It was the only thing she could hear, it being twice as loud as everything else, added to the fact that it was right next to her. The sound of it was a little hypnotic, click-click boom, click-click boom, click-click boom... She was also reassured by the feeling of his back pressed against hers. It gave her the knowledge that nothing would come at her from behind. She could faintly feel how his muscles reacted to the recoil of the shotgun, and it was a strangely relaxing feeling. She felt like this could go on all day and she wouldn't notice.

And the really scary part was, it did.

Of course no one realised it at the time, but the steady stream of predators continued through the afternoon and the sun set outside the ARC. Maria ran out of ammunition in her rifle and switched to the pistol, taking new magazines out of Becker's pocket whenever she needed one. She felt like a robot, and was doing things with a robotic precision. She never missed, and not a single thought went through her mind the entire time.

That is, until everything changed.

All of a sudden the Predators stopped throwing themselves willy-nilly at the team and formed a triple-layered circle around them. No one fired a shot for fear of what would happen if they did, but the tension in the room escalated to about ten times what it had been before. Out of the corner of her eye, Maria saw Lester glance at his watch. She could also tell that Becker was breathing heavily, which didn't surprise her much at all. Nothing seemed capable of getting any emotions out of her at all at that point in time. She took another magazine from him and accepted another for her rifle from someone else. It was more useful against the predators than the pistol. Nothing moved for the longest time, until, finally, one of the predators growled. That was the only warning the team got before they all lunged.

The first circle all jumped at once, and it was a miracle that no one got injured. The team managed to shoot them all down in mid-air, but the second circle didn't wait before following the first. This time, the agonized screams of at least three people reached Maria's ears. Then the third circle attacked, but they didn't all launch themselves at once. They did what they had been doing previously, just throwing themselves at random people, and even more started streaming through the anomalies. Maria wondered just how many Wilder had managed to create.

Every anomaly except the one in the corridor had predators almost tumbling out of it now, and no one else noticed the figure in grey slip out and run around the outside of the room. Lester's outraged cry of "It's Wilder!" brought everyone's attention to him, but by this point the madman had reached the ramp and was running up towards Lester's office. No one had the ability to stop him, his predators had seen to that, and so he was able to get there completely unchallenged.

"My apologies, Doctor H, but I won't be accepting your offer any time soon," he shouted over his shoulder. He ran straight past Lou and Seb who were too occupied to do anything about it, and into the office, where he began rummaging through the draws of Lester's desk. When he came out again he headed for the closest anomaly to him and Maria knew that if they didn't stop him before he went through it, they never would. She shot three more predators and pulled out her pistol again. If she shot him in the leg, or even the abdomen, he wouldn't die; he would just be unable to go anywhere. She would probably have to do emergency surgery on him afterwards but she didn't mind that. It was vital that he didn't get through the anomaly. She aimed and pulled the trigger in less than a second, and Wilder dropped, a look of surprise on his face. As he fell he twisted so that his body was facing her, and Maria went numb as she realised what she had just done.

Sounds muted, people and predators blurred and slowed. There was nothing clear in her mind besides the sight of Wilder lying on the floor above her and one thought. The gun fell from her hand and landed with a muffled clatter. She watched the dark stain spread from the wound her bullet had made, and she knew for a fact that she had killed him. The placement of the bullet was perfect. The centre of the bloodstain on his shirt was slap bang over his heart, and even from that distance Maria knew he couldn't possibly have survived.

She didn't realise she had sat down until Becker's arms came around her, pulling her closer to him on the floor. There was blood and bits of predator everywhere but Maria didn't even notice. She also didn't notice that the predators, upon seeing their master dead, had turned and run back through the anomalies, which had closed behind them. Maria wasn't aware of anything. The scene replayed itself over and over again in her head. Wilder running up the ramp, coming out of Lester's office, and then dropping to the floor with her bullet through his heart. It repeated itself in her mind, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get rid of it. She hadn't meant to kill him. Just stop him. Disable him. Delay him long enough for Lou or Seb to reach him. Anything at all. Just not kill him. Right from the start, she had never meant to do that.

Jess watched from the medical bay as Wilder ran towards her, threw her a smile that made her skin crawl, and passed into Lester's office. He ran out again, heading for the anomaly, but he stopped. He jerked and fell, rolling over onto his side so that his back was to her, and he didn't get up again. The predators stopped attacking and ran back into the anomalies, and all six of them shut once the last of them had gone through, leaving a nasty mess and a pile of corpses to clean up. Jess vaguely wondered who had shot him before venturing out into the ARC.

Lester heard the pistol fire but didn't think anything of it at first. It was only when the predators returned to their anomalies that he looked around to assess the situation. He hadn't been hurt, that was good, but there was a lot of predator blood on his suit. He pulled off his tie and loosened his top button to give himself some more breathing room. Then he noticed Maria drop to the floor and realised, with a surprising amount of emotion included, that she had shot Wilder and killed him.

Connor limped over to Abby and sat down next to her, out of breath and panting. His injuries hurt, but at least he hadn't gained any new ones. Abby leaned on his shoulder and closed her eyes, perfectly willing to fall asleep with her for the next few minutes. Then Abby's head lifted again and Connor followed her gaze to the middle of the room, where Becker had Maria in his arms. Abby pointed up to the balcony and Connor took in Wilder's body, before putting two and two together to figure out what had happened.

Seb had been watching the whole thing. He knew that Maria had shot Wilder, and could only imagine how she was feeling. She had often said how much the idea of killing repulsed her, but seeing her actually do it was another thing entirely. She had a look on her face that Seb immediately associated with the word Zombie but didn't dwell on it any further. The usual childish irritation that sprang up whenever he saw Maria and Becker together didn't come. Instead he was glad he was there for her. He probably knew more about how she was feeling than any of them.

Valerie had had the same idea in her head when Maria's gun had gone off, but she had neither expected to hit him nor cared if he died. He had caused her too much grief over the last few days, and at that moment everyone else ceased to matter. That was what it always came down to in the end. Your survival instincts just kick in and no one else is worth anything. She looked around for Anton, an automatic reflex she had gotten used to doing, before realising that he wasn't there. The depression that had been temporarily burned out of her system came flooding back, stripping away all other emotions.

As soon as the last of the anomalies had closed, Abby slumped against the wall and sat down. The floor was covered in slimy red, but she figured her clothes probably were too. Connor came over and sat next to her and she leaned against him, allowing her eyes to close. Then her brain registered that something was wrong and she sat back up again, pointing out Wilder's slumped form to Connor. She then saw Becker sitting on the floor with Maria and her first thought was that he'd shot Wilder in response to him shooting Maria, but then remembered that Wilder hadn't been armed. A blanket of sadness settled over her when she finally figured it out.

Lou leaned heavily against the railing of the balcony and dropped his pistol on the floor. Beside him Seb stood deep in thought and on his other side Wilder's lifeless form lay half on and half off the edge. From the floor, Becker looked up at him with an expression that Lou recognised. It was the look he had on when he didn't know what to do. Lou turned his attention to the rest of the room. It was littered with the bodies of predators; there must have been hundreds of them. He didn't know how Maria had done it.

Becker saw Maria fall to the floor before he knew anything was wrong. Then he took in Wilder, very much dead, and understood. He sat heavily down next to her, ignoring his screaming back the way he had been doing all day, and scooped her into his arms. He didn't say anything; he didn't have to. He just cradled her in his lap and kissed the top of her head. He didn't even know if she realised he was doing it. He felt Lou looking at him from the balcony and stared up at him, only to be met by a hollow imitation of his friend. After a few minutes Maria shifted in his arms and leaned against his chest. Becker expected her to start crying but she didn't. Nothing was quite what he expected at that moment.


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35~Restarting**

And that one looks like a dragonfly, Becker decided, staring up at the only small white cloud in his field of vision. If he moved his head in any direction he could see more of them but felt quite content just staring at that one and watching it become other things as it floated across the deep blue sky. Sky blue, he thought, is a bit of a misnomer, because the sky isn't actually one specific shade of blue. It changed and became darker the further away from the sun it was, so the "sky blue" in one place was actually about fifty shades lighter than the "sky blue" in another. Becker sighed. He hadn't felt so relaxed in years.

Maria moved in her sleep beside him and he brought his attention down from the sky to her, and he sighed again. She looked so peaceful in her sleep, so much so that it was hard to believe the things she had been through recently, and he was happy to leave her there. She hadn't been doing enough sleeping lately. Just as this thought sauntered across his mind, a frown crossed Maria's face and she started twitching slightly. Disappointed, Becker stroked his thumb across her cheek and kissed her on the forehead to wake her up before the nightmare really got going. Her bleary eyes slowly opened and she yawned and rolled away from him for a moment to stretch and rub the sleep out of her eyes. Then she curled into him again and snaked one hand into his hair, and threaded the other between his own fingers.

"Morning," he said softly, even though it was three in the afternoon and she had only been asleep for an hour or so. She smiled and kissed him before nuzzling into his chest and closing her eyes.

"How're you feeling?" she asked.

"Stiff," he replied truthfully. What he missed out was that he hurt like hell and was extremely concerned about her. It had been a week now since she'd shot Wilder, and still she was acting like it never happened. As far as he was aware, she hadn't even cried over it, and he'd been with her nearly every hour since so would have noticed. But he knew she was having nightmares, so she couldn't be as unphased by it as she was letting on.

"Stiff, huh?" she knew he was hiding something, and she didn't really need to ask how he felt. She knew how he should feel, so hiding it from her was nearly completely pointless.

"Yes, stiff. And maybe a little sore," he felt her chuckle and smiled to himself.

"Well maybe you should stop following me around and stay in bed for a few days, like I keep telling you to,"

"But if i did that," he said, rolling onto his side with more difficulty that he was going to admit, "I couldn't be with you," she just said something like 'hmmmm' and stretched up to kiss him again, and Becker cursed for the fifty millionth time that week that he couldn't move. Her kisses flicked a switch in him that rendered his self-control completely useless and he had to fight it if he didn't want to hurt himself even more. Usually he just went with it and was interrupted by the ADD or someone's phone, but he wouldn't find anything like that halfway up the hill behind Maria's house. As if she sensed this, Maria ended the kiss and he rolled onto his back again, landing too heavily on his injured shoulder. He pulled her closer to him, his hand around her waist sliding under her shirt, and felt her shiver. He stared back up at the sky again and was, for the moment anyway, completely content to just lie there with her in his arms.

Sadly, all good things have to come to an end, and this particular end was brought on by nothing more than someone calling him. The irony of the situation was almost overwhelming. He sighed and Maria wriggled under his arm, annoyed herself at the interruption. Becker didn't even spare the caller ID a glance before poking the green button, raising the phone to his ear and making a lazy noise of acknowledgement into it. He jerked it away from his ear as Lou's voice shouted down it.

"Did you know about this?" Lou demanded, and Becker could hear him breathing heavily, as if he had just been shouting at someone.

"I don't know, did I?" Becker asked. He didn't have the slightest clue what Lou was on about and had been in such a slow mood all week that his brain didn't really want to engage properly.

"They're clearing out Maria's office," Lou said, not even picking up on Becker's sarcasm. Becker himself sat bolt upright, now fully alert, and had to bite his lip to stop himself from crying out at the pain that shot down his back.

"What? What did you say?"

"I said that Maintenance is clearing out Maria's office. Is she with you? Can you please ask her what the hell she's thinking before I completely lose it?" It sounded to Becker that Lou already had lost it but he didn't think saying that would make him particularly popular.

"Yes, she's with me, I'll talk to her."

"Good!" Lou hung up before Becker could say anything else, and Becker sighed, slowly sliding his phone back into his pocket. He turned to Maria, who was also sitting up, and by the look on her face she knew exactly what that conversation had been about.

"You're leaving." It wasn't a question.

"I can't stay here anymore, not after what I did."

"It wasn't your fault," Even as he said it he knew how she would react.

"What do you mean it wasn't my fault? I pulled the trigger after very deliberately aiming at him, how does that make it not my fault?"

"Because you hadn't meant to kill him," he went to cup her face in his hands but she stood up and started walking down the hill. He called after her but she didn't turn around. Grumbling, he got to his knees and slowly stood up, hating how much that one simple action hurt. He called after her again, not expecting a response, and started to follow her. He wouldn't be able to catch up with her; she was walking faster than he could manage; so he tried a different tactic.

"It doesn't go away you know," he called, and she stopped with a jolt. He didn't say anything as he walked at his own pace down to the bottom of the hill, and when he reached her she turned to him.

"The nightmares," he continued, "The constant feeling that he's behind you, watching everything you're doing. When you see is his face every time you close your eyes. It doesn't go away." She stared up at him, her eyes glistening with tears that should have fallen days ago, silently begging him to be wrong.

"Running away doesn't help," he whispered, pulling her into a hug. "It just takes you away from the people who can." As he said it he felt her silent sobs shake her whole body and he stroked her hair, giving her the only comfort he could. He knew what she was going through. He had killed many people in much the same way she had killed Wilder, and their faces stuck to his memory all the time. He didn't even know most of their names.

"Please don't tell me this is going to stay with me every single day for the rest of my life," Maria choked through her sobs.

"Not every day," he assured her. "It gets better. And I'll help you; you're not alone in this." She nodded into his chest and they stood like that on the grass just behind her house for half an hour. He didn't need to say anything. He knew that just being there for her was enough. After a while her tears dried up and they just stood there in companionable silence for a while longer. Eventually, she broke it.

"I didn't mean to kill him." She said. Her voice was so sad that Becker almost started crying himself.

"I know," he whispered, kissing the top of her head. Silence stretched between them again for a few moments more before Maria spoke up again.

"How many have you killed?" she asked him. The question took him by surprise. It wasn't something he particularly liked thinking about, let alone talking about.

"Personally, or been responsible for?" he had to ask. The difference in the two numbers was annoyingly large.

"Both," she said. He sucked in a deep breath, bringing up memories he had been trying not to think about ever since joining the ARC.

"Personally, twenty eight. Been responsible for..." he had to think about this one. "Hundreds." Maria looked up at him again.

"Hundreds?"

"Something like that," he confirmed.

"How?"

"Orders given, attacks organised. You know, little indirect things like that." Maria nestled back into his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck. He wasn't sure if she was just accepting his comforting or trying to give it back. "And if it makes you feel any better, I still have nightmares sometimes too." Somehow, telling her all this made him feel relieved, as if a huge weight had been taken off his shoulders. Now all that remained to make his life as perfect as it could ever be was to convince her not to leave.

"You're still considering leaving aren't you?"

"I don't think I can stay, not now. And I definitely can't go back to the ARC."

"Of course you can. Yes, it will always remind you of this and no, you probably won't stop thinking about it. But that doesn't mean you have to hide."

"I don't know..." Whatever she had been about to say was cut off by Becker's mobile once again making its presence known to the world. Maria stepped out of his embrace and wiped her eyes with her sleeve as he answered. It was Lou again.

"Did you talk to her?" he demanded without so much as even a 'hello.'

"You're making it extremely difficult," Becker replied sardonically.

"Well, fine, but whether she's sticking around or not, Seb wants us both down at the racetrack anomaly. Like, now."

"Why, what's he found?"

"I don't know, he wouldn't say, but he just wants both me and Maria down there."

"Okay, we'll be there in fifteen minutes." Becker hung up and turned back to Maria.

"Seb requires your presence down at the racetrack anomaly. I don't know what for, but it turns out that brother of yours isn't quite as useless as I thought."

Anton stayed with his colony for a week. It was too long, really, and he often wondered if the team had even gone looking for him. He doubted it. Lester wouldn't allow it, and he doubted that he even knew about their attempt to rescue Maria. Politics worked in strange ways.

During that week he discovered that Monica had been right. More people had missed him than he had expected. In fact, he was amazed that anyone felt particularly sad at his disappearance. Everyone had welcomed him back, showing off more friendship than they had ever had before, and it amazed him. He guessed that this was what had been meant by the phrase 'you don't know what you've got until it's gone.'

He had told Harriet everything. He had started with how he'd escaped the predator attack in the first place, gone on to say that he'd run into Valerie while on his way to another safe house in the opposite direction to the one the colony had gone to, and then explained the ARC team turning up. He had also told her all about their world and how beautiful it was. She hadn't been quite as enthusiastic as him, commenting that 2011 is a little too close to the start of all this to be at all fair to the children, but after a little more persuasion, he had her convinced. She then convinced him to stay with them for a while; after all they couldn't just up and move instantly. Reluctant as he was to stay away from Valerie, he agreed, not quite intending to stay for so long. He also discovered that the predator he had come up against recently had removed his fringe. He didn't like it for that. It made him feel vulnerable. He had gotten used to being able to mask himself behind it, but now that it was gone the scars it had been covering up were on display to everyone. He wasn't sure he felt entirely comfortable with that. Nevertheless, he tried to pretend that he was no different from how he had been when he left, and the colony seemed to go along with it.

He was looking forward to bringing them back with him. He liked to think that it would make up for leaving them behind.


	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36~ The End, For Good This Time**

The repair garage only contained Seb, George and a few security guards, which was a little confusing for Maria and Becker, who had been told by Lou that something important was happening. Of course, it might have been Seb's plan all along to get Maria back in the game; every guard on the site gave her a nod and a 'glad you're back.' If that was the case, all it did was add to Maria's conflicting thoughts on the subject and make Becker shoot her an I-told-you-so kind of look. Maria didn't respond to that. She was far more mature than he was.

"Oh hooray, you came," Seb strode over to them from the other end of the garage, the end with the anomaly sitting in it. "For a moment there Lou was making me think that you were abandoning us."

"Who, may I ask, is 'us'? Since when did you become a member of this team?" Maria raised a questioning eyebrow at her brother.

"Since I've been sitting here watching this thing flicker for the last week, that's when," Seb grumbled. He looked like he was going to say more but he was cut off by someone talking into his earpiece. He muttered one-word answers in response before telling George he had five minutes. Lou's arrival prevented Maria from asking what was going to happen once those five minutes were up, and before she could ask Seb was already off doing something else.

"I thought you were leaving," Lou said from behind Maria's shoulder.

"So did I," Maria responded. Becker smiled down at her and wrapped an arm around her waist. By saying those three words Maria had told both of them that she had made up her mind and was going to stay with the ARC. Maria hoped he was as sure about everything as he had sounded earlier.

"Did you bring Valerie with you?" Seb asked Lou, not looking up from something he was writing on.

"No..." Lou said slowly. "Why, did you want me to?"

"Yeeess..." Seb dragged the word out as if he was talking to a three year old and Lou pulled a face at him before making yet another phone call. Maria couldn't help but smile. As soon as Lou hung up Natalie practically skipped into the room.

"Someone's happy," Lou commented, planting a kiss on her cheek that made both Maria and Seb's eyebrows shoot up. George just laughed and Becker tried to hide a grin.

"I had a good sleep last night, that's reason enough," Natalie responded, completely ignoring everyone else. They started talking in hushed tones to each other and Maria stopped watching when Lou put his hands around Natalie's waist.

"Did you..." Seb mouthed, pointing at them. Maria shook her head and he rolled his eyes over-dramatically. George smirked again. Seb aimed a look at his son that blatantly told him to shut up and cleared his throat loudly.

"I don't suppose you know when Valerie's getting here, do you?" he asked Lou with just a little more sarcasm than necessary.

"Twenty minutes," Lou told him, not even looking round. Natalie's arms were around his neck now and Seb shot Maria a look.

"I blame you for this," he said.

"And how, Dear Brother, is this my doing?" Maria asked with about as much innocence as she could muster.

"Because you're here and there's no one else," Seb retorted, turning around again. "Any second now George," he shouted, and stepped back so that he was in line with Maria and Becker in front of the anomaly. "Can you two stop canoodeling, you're going to want to pay attention to this."

"Canoodling? Really?" Lou's incredulous expression was almost funny, but he and Natalie did indeed stop and added to the line of witnesses to whatever fantastic event that was about to unfold. Immense satisfaction settled inside Maria as she noticed Lou and Natalie's intertwined fingers. She had been dropping subtle hints for months, trying to push them towards each other and now, finally, they were together. It was quite heart-warming, actually.

George also came over and stood next to his sister. He kept glancing between his watch and the anomaly, making Maria feel impatient.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" she asked. No one responded; the only two people who did know weren't telling. Before it got awkward, though, George's watch beeped.

"Just wait and see," he said, and then the anomaly sprang open.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Once the tension in the room had built up to beyond bearable, a woman stepped through. She didn't notice the watchers, or at least she didn't give any sign that she had. As soon as she stepped through, another woman joined her, and then a man. The three of them took their rucksacks off and dropped them on the floor in one smooth movement before stepping back out of the way of the anomaly.

A second later, more people came through. Most of them were adults, between twenty and forty all of them, and most of them were carrying heavy-looking bags. Those who weren't were organising the children. At the direction of the first three, the bag-carriers deposited their load in the growing pile at the side of the anomaly and then took a child off someone else. There were only six or seven kids, and they were handed over to a group of five or so teenagers who kept them calm and talked to them quietly while the adults helped each other with the group's baggage. They worked swiftly, as a team, each knowing where he or she needed to be and not making a fuss about getting there. A tall, skinny man holding a child joined the first three people and they had a short conversation before dispersing and lending a hand where they could.

There were about thirty people in all. They ranged from infants to middle-aged and had all kinds of hair colours, skin tones and faces. It was clear that very few of them were related but yet they all acted as a family, giving all the assistance they could to everyone, no matter who they were. Realisation struck Maria like a bolt of lightning. This was Valerie and Anton's colony. He had found them. Anton had stayed behind to track them down and had succeeded. A smile spread across her face as it sunk in. Becker's arm tightened around her waist and she looked up at him to see that he was smiling too.

When it had become apparent that everyone was on the right side of the anomaly, the Colony gathered around it. A blonde woman, the one who had been the first through, said something that made everyone laugh and then took something out of her pocket. She glanced at the tall man who winked at her and she threw that something into the centre of the anomaly. The anomaly wrapped in on itself and, with a whooshing sound, closed completely. Applause and cheers sounded out of the crowd and the colony started hugging one another.

The tall man, still with the child in one arm, led the blonde woman out of the crowd and over to the watching ARC team. Maria didn't realise that the tall man was Anton until he was halfway across the garage. By the sounds of amazement from Lou and George, they hadn't figured it out either. He looked different without his fringe, younger somehow. And the fact that he was genuinely smiling, something none of the team had ever seen him do, made him even more the changed man. Anton started pointing out individual members of the team to the blonde before coming to a stop in front of them.

"You took your time," Seb announced. Anton chose to ignore this, but the child he was carrying stuck his tongue out at Seb. Seb stuck his tongue out right back, and Maria and Lou shared a despairing look.

"Everyone, this is Harriet Bates, leader of the colony and, yes, Valerie's sister," Anton said, acting completely oblivious to the face-pulling war Seb had engaged the child in. Harriet smiled. She was so similar to Valerie that they could have been twins.

"And this is Tommy," Anton said, indicating the boy in his arms. Tommy stopped crossing his eyes at Seb long enough to say hello before starting again. Anton sighed.

"Stop it," he said, giving Tommy a 'This-Really-Isn't-Funny' look. Tommy stuck his tongue out at Anton instead and poked him in the side of the head. His finger met the end of one of the long red scars that ran down Anton's face, and Anton winced. He glared at Tommy and started talking to him about being nice to people. Harriet rolled her eyes.

"No matter how many times they have this conversation, it will always happen again. Just wait and see," she muttered.

"Are they related?" Natalie asked.

"Not that I'm aware of," Harriet said. "Where's Valerie?" Seb gave Lou a hard stare.

"Yes Lou, where is Valerie?" he asked, overdoing the sarcasm for the second time that day.

"She's over there," Lou gave Seb a smug look and pointed over to the colony. Valerie was in the middle of them, exchanging hugs and kisses. Tommy wriggled in Anton's arm and almost fell to the floor before running towards her. Harriet followed him, and the team watched the two sisters fiercely embrace. Anton stayed back with the team.

"On a scale of one to ten, how dead am I right now?" he asked, not taking his eyes off Valerie.

"Eleven," Lou supplied. Anton's shoulders dropped and he gave Lou a pleading look. Lou just shrugged. As they watched, Valerie looked up from chatting away with Harriet, straight at Anton. He didn't do anything, he just kept watching her, and she excused herself from the others. She walked purposefully towards him, drawing the attention of the entire colony, and stopped in front of him. Anton was about to say something when with absolutely no warning whatsoever, Valerie slapped him in the face, hard enough for the sound to echo around the garage. It took Anton a moment to recover, during which time the colony started whispering to each other.

"I guess I deserved that," Anton finally said, blinking hard and rubbing his cheek.

"That was for leaving without telling me," Valerie said angrily. Her glare had enough force behind it to make her own anomaly just by looking at the ground.

"I missed you too," Anton muttered sarcastically. Valerie seemed to have been waiting for this, because as soon as he said it her gaze softened and she pulled at the collar of his shirt, forcing him down to her level. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, taking everyone in the room by complete surprise. Everyone, that is, except Anton himself. He had either been expecting it or had wanted it to happen, because he just wound his arms around her waist and kissed her back without skipping a beat. They stayed like that until a condescending voice drifted towards them from the door.

"Could we please dispense with the romance for a few minutes, there are far more important things to discuss." Lester strode towards them with his usual look of self-importance on his face, and both Valerie and Anton burst out laughing at the same time, still wrapped in each other's arms. With Lester were Connor, Abby, Jess and even Danny, although he was still looking a little worse for the wear. They mingled with the rest of the team, Danny earning claps on the back from Becker, Lou and Seb, and Lester confronted Anton.

"I don't suppose you have any appreciation for how much paperwork you have just dropped on my desk? No, of course you don't." He gave the colony another scrutinous glance. "And does anyone have any ideas about where they're all going to stay? As brilliant as I am I can't manufacture housing out of thin air."

"My place, obviously," Maria announced before anyone could start getting worried. "Oh, Sebastian?" she called.

"Why do you always use that voice when you want something? It's really annoying."

"How many rooms do we have in the East Wing?" Maria ignored her brother's comment and got straight down to it. Seb thought for a moment.

"Ten I think. Yeah, something like that. Why?"

"I'm just wondering if we had enough space in East and West. You know how much Old Smithy hates it when we shut the museum down."

"Uhhh... Yes, I think we do. I mean, we'll have to sweep it for pests and what have you, not to mention give it a hell of a spring clean,"

"And check the plumbing still works,"

"Well yes, that too. But yeah I think that could work."

"I'm a genius."

"Yeah... No. You're really not."

"I so am."

"Anyway," Lester cut in before the Hollands could start bickering again. "How long will all this take?" Maria looked at Seb.

"End of the day?"

"If everyone helps..."

"If everyone lends a hand we can have it done by the end of the day," Maria informed him. Lester nodded and started making phone calls to arrange transportation, and everyone else looked confused.

"Maria and Seb have agreed to let the colony stay at their place," Lou supplied.

"Did they just make a decision without shouting at each other first?" Becker asked; quiet enough for them not to hear him. Lou blinked.

"I hadn't realised. Yes, I think they did."

"What is the world coming to?"

"Oh don't worry," Lou said darkly. "It won't last."

But last it did. In twenty minutes eight of the ARC's black pick-ups had arrived and the colony sped along to the Holland mansion. Once there, Seb sought out their groundskeeper, Old Smithers as he was known to pretty much everybody, and spent another ten minutes explaining what had to happen. Smithers was not happy about it. It meant a constant presence of a lot of people, and Smithers was getting on to eighty years old. The only way he would be swayed was when Seb promised to hire in more ground staff, something Smithers had wanted for years but neither of the Hollands had ever got around to doing. After that, it was easy-going. Little Tommy was fascinated by Smithers. The first thing he asked when he saw him was if anything was wrong with him. This caused a certain amount of laughter, at which point it was revealed that Tommy had, in fact, never seen an old person, because the members of the colony never lived much beyond fifty or so. The two of them were very soon inseparable, Tommy following Smithers around everywhere he went.

The rest of the colony members, with the exception of the small children and two teens tasked with looking after them, got straight down to work as soon as they were told what needed doing. They worked quickly and efficiently, organising themselves like a group of people can only do when they've been doing it all their lives. Anyone who wasn't doing anything specific was going from group to group bringing refreshments to those who needed it.

It only took half an hour for the ARC team to feel like they were in the way, so everyone besides the Hollands and Lou scurried off home. Even Becker was persuaded, albeit eventually, to go back to his flat. Leaving Natalie, George and Lou at the mansion, Seb and Maria took Seb's huge truck to IKEA for something for the colonists to sleep on for the night.

"Do you know how long it's been since you joined the ARC?" Seb asked out of nowhere.

"I'm sure I could work it out if I thought about it, why?"

"One month." Seb told her. "If you want to be really specific, thirty-five days, but that's of little relevance."

"Seriously? It's only been thirty five days?" Maria couldn't believe it.

"Yep. Since you walked into Lester's office, thirty five days."

"Wow. It seems like it's been months."

"Tell me about it." Another silence fell between them while Seb navigated the afternoon traffic.

"Why do you hate Ryan so much?" Maria asked after a while.

"I don't HATE him; he and I just have too much in common to really get along." Seb decided. "And besides, he makes you happy, I'm not going to complain about that." Maria shot him a sideways glance.

"Wow, Seb, after all this time you really do care about me. That's sweet, it really is."

"Trust you to ruin a sincere moment with sarcasm," Seb muttered.

"You love me for it."

"Yeah, probably."

**A/N: **

**So you may have guessed by the title of this chapter that Back to Reality is finished. If you didn't guess, I applaud how unobservant you are. Really, I do. **

**But anyway, Sorry if you thought I'd died or something, I know I had a huge upload splurge before this chapter, but a combination of school and my OCD prevented me from finishing this one until now. **

**So yeah, thanks for sticking with me throughout all this and I would LOVE to know what you thought of the story. **

**So please review, and look out for more by yours truly.**

**Earthcat123 .**


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